Alpha and Omega: (Un)Dead Park - Part 2
by Lilly Omega
Summary: Kate has a dream about zombies in Jasper. Everyone thought it is just a dream. What if it is a premonition? Then it happens again, for real, and not in some bad dream. Kate must lead the 19 survivors somewhere safer than Jasper before they all die like her dream. However, will they make it, when most of the females are expecting pups?
1. Prologue: The Dream

Author's note: If you haven't read Alpha and Omega: (Un)Dead Park already, then DO NOT read this story yet or you will be confused by what is going on. Don't complain to me if you don't understand the story. This a sequel to another story. That is my only warning about it.

As for those who have read this story, you will probably realize that this prologue is basically a cut-and-paste of the epilogue of part one, only with some details added it, and a different ending. I am not being lazy by doing that. It is something that I planned when I first thought about a sequel. This story picks up right where Part 1 left off. I would like to credit Alphawolfben for the idea of this story when I had a discussion with him about possibly writing a sequel.

One other warning: IF YOU DO NOT LIKE VIOLENCE, GORE, PROFANITY OR SEXUAL CONTENT, DON'T GO PAST THIS WARNING.

This warning is in all caps for a good reason. This story is rated M for a good reason, mainly because it is about zombies, so it is going to be violent and gory. Well, on with the story.

* * *

**Prologue**

The brown female wolf awoke screaming at the top of her lungs. Her name was Kate, and her screams woke up her sleeping family members. Her mate's name was Humphrey and their adolescent pups' names were Claudette, Stinky, and Runt. They had been sleeping peacefully, like Kate, until now.

They were all around Kate quickly, every one of them asking her what was wrong.

"Oh..." gasped Kate." It was just a nightmare!"

"What happened?" asked Claudette, the eldest pup and only daughter of Kate and Humphrey.

"You'll be shocked," said Kate, and then she told them everything that had just happened. She told them that everyone in her nightmare died to undead wolves.

"You had a nightmare about zombies in Jasper?" the group gasped together, shocked.

"You do not need to worry about such a thing ever happen anywhere, not here or in Banff," said her mate, Humphrey. "Zombies are not real, dear," he added, rubbing his wet nose through her hackles. This had some of a calming effect on Kate.

"I think we should all go to The Moonlight Howl instead of sleeping," said Stinky, the middle child, an Alpha. "It may get mother's mind off of her nightmare."

They all agreed with this proposal.

* * *

Kate, Humphrey and their children arrived at The Howling Rock just as Candy and Lani, a young Omega wolf from the Western Pack, were, with their mates were arriving. Mooch, also a Western Omega, was the mate of Candy. They were behind them a good distance, but they could hear what the she-wolves were saying. The wolves behind them did not know it until they heard this conversation, but Candy just got done riding her mate in their cave, while Lani and her mate had come here to wait for them.

"Silly Omegas!" laughed Candy. "All they want us for is sex!" Then she jokingly added, "But we're too good them, right Lani?" even though she had just gave Mooch what he wanted about seven minutes ago.

_Well, I am pretty horny right about now..._thought Lani, with a look of being in heat on her face as she smiled at Candy. Candy was obviously satisfied, but Lani went back to her mate, and she led him into the bushes to get what she wanted from him. Candy and Mooch, and the wolves behind them, ignored the cries of pleasure coming from the bushes, and just went on to the top of The Howling Rock while Lani used her mate to take care of being in heat. Kate was not showing it, but she was nervous about being here, where her nightmare had begun, even though this was real life. She also noted how Candy was pregnant already, only on the early stages, unlike in Kate's nightmare. Candy and Sweets had _both_ been pregnant, and both alive, in her nightmare, about to give birth, not recently pregnant. That gave Kate hope that everything would be different when they reached the top of The Howling Rock. That Claws would not see the guards chasing rogues into the box canyon to what would be their demise. That would not happen, however, because there were not any guards here. There had not been any since the death of King and Queen because there was no reason to. The rogues would never return to Jasper without their chieftains whom had done so much for them before their deaths. In addition, Kate was not aware of the fact that Claws was not here to see it. Like so many other females, they were busy taking care of their heat with their mates, probably in her cave, because it was mating scene in Jasper. Claws, Candy, Lani, and Janice were only few of the females who were in heat. Claudette was also in heat, and she went off to find Fleet, her mate, formerly from the Northern Pack, to take care of it.

Even Kate was in heat. The last time she mated with Humphrey was three years ago. Wolves often had more than one litter, and so for Kate to have only got pregnant once in three years was on. Wolves said the same thing about Lilly and Garth, they had not yet mated yet, and Lilly's heat was killing her. She wanted to mate with Garth, even if that meant riding him view of everyone! Lilly had the worst heat because Garth was worried about hurting Lilly because of Eve's threat towards him: "If you do anything to hurt my daughter, Lilly, I will sterilize you and it will be painful." So maybe if Lilly had complete control, and Eve knew about it, then maybe he would not have that happen if Lilly were hurt.

As all their friends, those who were not mating now, were howling with their mates, or those whom they were in love with if they were not married yet, Kate was trying to ignore being in heat. Nevertheless, she was afraid that she would do something to herself or Humphrey in view of the other wolves that would be an embarrassing thing to do, being the Alpha female and the Alpha male. Mating season would be no excuse just to start loving her mate in plain view. Kate and Lilly were both extremely tempted to do something; their heat was that bad. They had not mated in three years, or never in the case of Lilly. At least howling with Garth was keeping Lilly distracted from it, but Lilly did not know the feelings of mating like Kate did, so it was harder for her to ignore this feel. Howling with Humphrey, her mate, only made her heat stronger.

Now, Kate was whisper in Humphrey's ear, hopefully in a voice so low that only he would hear it. She was talking to Humphrey about being in heat for the first time in three years, and that he needed to do something about it for her. Her words after this were, "There's a good drop off with some bushes in it that can give us some privacy..." That was the last words from her, because she had said things that got Humphrey in heat. He had not been until now.

There was a great amount of howling of couples going out at this level, and all the way down the mountain. The wolves did not hear Humphrey and Kate or Claudette and Fleet mating out of view of their friends and family. There was a gasp from around the bend of the highest point of the mountain as Claudette was done fucking her mate, Fleet.

While the wolves were howling with their mates or dates, they could hear faint moans coming from where Claudette had dragged Fleet to mate with her. It sounded like both of them were moaning. Fleet was moaning something to the likes of "Oh...Claudette...please, I don't want you to ever stop riding me!" Minutes later, Fleet was screaming in pleasure, and Claudette was moaning. Then they were silent.

The two were quiet about it, yet several minutes later, there was a scream—"Oh, Humphrey!" —that overshadowed the howling, and every wolf on the mountain stopped howling. The heads of the wolves at the top all spun in the direction of the sound to see Kate's head over the edge of a low cliff, her eyes half climbed, with a smile on her face. All in pleasure, because of Humphrey, who was shaking with pleasure behind Kate, filling her up as he became still. Kate and Humphrey were feeling too good to movie. Kate got what she wanted more than anything did: to forget completely about that nightmare of everyone in the valley dying. Moreover, to get her state of heat relieved, too. Kate and Humphrey were both breathing heavily, and she felt so warm thanks to Humphrey. She could only imagine what their children would say when she gave birth her first little in three months next spring.

* * *

Claudette, who was lying on top of Fleet, in the position they mated with each other, gasped when she heard her mother screaming her father's name. It made her blush, because it sounded like her father had made her mother feel better than she made had made Fleet feel when she rode him. They looked at each other with shock. Never had they heard someone screaming in pleasure like that before, at The Howling Rock. "That...that was Kate?" stuttered Fleet.

"Yes, it was my mother," moaned Claudette, still feeling pleasure from what she had just finished doing to him. "I guess I'll have more brothers and sisters. Wait until I tell Stinky and Runt! They will be shocked to hear that when mother learns she is pregnant, and the same news from me. Winston, Eve, and Tony will be shocked to hear that they'll probably be around to be great grandparents."

"Yes, they all will be surprised," whispered Fleet. Because of when she had fallen on him, Fleet's front paws were stuck against his much larger and heavier mate's breast. Obviously, she was did not care, but she was not reacting to his paws being there. For Fleet, on the other hand, felt like his heavier mate was crushing his arms. It made Fleet wish that he had mated properly with Claudette, by mounting her, rather than letting her have complete control. Of course, he did not feel awkward at all, having his paws on Claudette's breast.

Nevertheless, it had felt so good that he did not last long with her riding him. He had filled her with his fluids after only five minutes of getting rode by the wolf he loved so much.

Although both Claudette and Fleet were smiling at each other, Fleet said, "Could you move so I can free my front legs?"

Claudette complied, and lifted herself up, setting on him in the position that she had rode him, long enough for him to free his front legs. She immediately fell back down onto her mate, and he gasped with the weight of her landing him again.

Claudette and Fleet locked each other's eyes. It was her first time doing this, and she was excited for the spring to come along, when she would have her first littler. She did not know the feeling of being a mother. Judging by Kate's scream of "Oh, Humphrey!" she would have more than just her own little to look forward to in a few months. Then there was Lilly and Garth, and her own siblings. There would be many puppies born next spring. Princess was already pregnant with the pups of her little brother, Runt, and Stinky had found a mate, a she-wolf from the Southern Pack, called Mica, named for the stone because of her eye color, but she did not know yet if Stinky and Mica had mated yet.

Claudette had forgotten the feeling of her first time mating with a wolf, her first true love, Fleet, whose father, Nars, was not particularly fond of her mother, Kate, because Nars had lost to Kate as a puppy in The Great Wolf Games, which had been a tie between these two wolves who were now mates, as puppies. In addition, to add to his dislike of the Central Pack's Alpha family, Claudette had defeated Nars when he had to serve as a replace for Mica, who had broken her foot during the qualifying rounds of the games, due to a water slick on the obstacle course.

What Claudette was now thinking about was not that she had just done it with Fleet, but...

"I'm going to be a mother!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, unknowingly right in the ear of her mate, whom was still in her because they felt too good to move from this position, despite Fleet feeling crushed under his heavy, but not overweight, mate. Fleet was a skinny wolf like Humphrey who weighed three quarters what Claudette weighted. Claudette got her weight and the size of her head and hips, in comparison to the curves of her body, from her grandmother Eve. She was almost a spitting image of Eve, more than Kate and Humphrey. Her brothers looked more like Humphrey than anyone, but there were some features of Winston in them, like their manes and eye colors.

Claudette's tail was swaying around with excitement over the chance of being pregnant. She had tried once before with Fleet, but it did not result in a pregnancy. That was after she had defeated Nars in her first Great Wolf Games as an adolescent wolf. They were older now than she was then, so Claudette and Fleet were both sure that she would get pregnant this time. They were at the end of their adolescent years as wolves. So close that they had might as well be adults now. Therefore, if Claudette did not get pregnant this mating season, they would try again next year. They would be full-blown adult wolves then.

Claudette kissed her mate right on the lips for giving her another chance at getting pregnant, even though their first time had not worked around as they had hoped. She ran her tongue over Fleet's lips, stuck her tongue down Fleet's throat, and then got off him.

Fleet stood up. Claudette had decided to get off her Fleet at the right time, because they could now hear footsteps outside the box canyon at the top of the mountain. A few wolves walked into the box canyon. It was the couples of Princess and Runt and Stinky and Runt. Princess was already pregnant, so she and Runt did not have such looks on their face, but Stinky and Mica did.

Claudette and Fleet asked the same question at once: "I take it I know this means for our family?"

"Yes," said Stinky. "Mica could be pregnant."

"And yes," said Fleet. "Claudette could be, as well."

"And so will be your mother, Kate," Princess interrupted. "Did you hear her scream Humphrey's name?"

"We heard, for sure," said Claudette, still drunk with pleasure like the other wolves here had mated on this night. "At least there'll be a boom of wolf pups this spring. It will get our mind even more off that blood Battle with the Rogues. It is good to see our mother back to her old self after her injuries King gave her. Maybe a new little of pups will make her forget about it."

"Yes," said Princess, "and maybe I'll forgot about my terrible up bring in Banff. The future is looking brighter," she added. "Now let's go howl the night away before the full moon leaves for another month! We can celebrate the new life that will come next spring!"

* * *

Far from this box canyon at The Howling Rock, these wolves whom were already talking next spring, something was going on that they did not even know about. It was just like something out of Kate's nightmare about the undead.

"Did you see where those intruders went?" one of the Betas asked another.

"No," he said, "but they looked and smelled just like rogues. I mean the ones from Banff."

They could hear moans, definitely not ones of pleasure, coming from the box canyon those wolves seemed to have shambled.

"It sounds like their suffering," a third Beta said.

"Let's find out what they're up to before they cause any trouble. If it is rogues, we will take them out before they hurt anyone. Come on."

He ran into the box canyon, but his two friends did not have a chance to follow him before they heard his screams of agony coming from the canyon.

The two Betas looked at each other for a second, and then they ran into the canyon. They saw their friend ate alive by a few rogues, and they froze with fear. It was their fear that led to them torn to shreds like their friend...


	2. One Month Later

**Chapter 1**

**One Month Later...**

Three Beta wolves—the middle rank of wolves in most packs—went missing a month ago. There was no signs of where they went, other than their trail ends around The Howling Rock. Hours upon hours of wolves, trying to track them down and they found nothing. There were no signs of the three missing wolves. There was no scent, no blood, and no remains.

In Jasper, there was only one pack of wolves that could be responsible for the sudden disappearance of wolves. To the south of Jasper was Banff National Park, where a small pack of rogue wolves lived. They were all once part of the Eastern pack of Jasper, but after disagreements over Omegas and Betas being able to marry Alphas, a large part of the Eastern pack left Jasper. At that time, it was only fifty some wolves, including two wolves just out of their adolescent years called Slash and Crystal, their daughter Terra, and two orphaned females called Ana and Anca. When this pack of fifty wolves arrived in Banff, they fought the former ruling pack for dominance of the park, and won. After this, Slash renamed himself "King." His mate renamed herself "Queen" and he renamed his daughter "Princess," even though she protested this name change. The orphaned pups also were gave new names; Ana became Melissa and Anca became MaKayla.

It was not because these wolves went rogue that the wolves in Jasper suspected them of taking or even killing the three wolves. It was because of their now past actions after they went rogue. First, three rogues snuck into Jasper, intending to take all three of the pups of the Alpha male and Alpha female, Kate and Humphrey, whose names were Claudette, Stinky and Runt. Because of an attack by a grizzly bear, only Runt, the youngest pup, had been pupnapped from his family. In Banff, King eventually threatened to kill Runt if his family did not come to rescue him soon, but his daughter Princess did her best to protect Runt from her own pack. Therefore, when Runt's family, with some Beta wolves, including Hutch, and a few Omegas, including Candy, arrived, Princess felt like she should return Runt back to his real family. Therefore, when Humphrey distracted her father, whom she did not know was Runt's father, Princess fled.

During the battle that ensued between the Jasper wolves and the rogues, King finds out from a wolf who had been watching the whole thing that Princess fled with Runt, and he goes to find her. King confronts his daughter, threatening to them both. He would have succeeded if it were not for the intervention of Runt's family, plus the Beta wolves Hutch, Claws and Scar, and Candu. In the end, King was left with what they had thought would be a fatal wound, but Princess's throat was also slashed when she tried to kill her own father. She did it to protect Runt. Luckily, Princess recovers in a small cave that the Omega best friends Candy and Sweets found on the way to Banff. However, when Kate and Humphrey ask Princess if she wants to join their pack, she refused for one reason: Princess wanted to know if her father was dead or not, before she joined them. However, when Princess never returned after she went back to Banff, the Jasper wolves could only assume that something bad happened to her, and they left, as much as they did not want to.

What happened to Princess was she learned that her father was alive, and the rogues captured her, because of a set up. For the next two years, Princess would be a slave of the rogues, enduring beatings, rape of her mouth, and even torture until she snapped. When a rogue came to her cave, and mated with her mouth when she found herself caught up in a flashback about Runt that had caused her to black out, Princess lost her mind, and slaughtered the rogue who did it to her. Accusing her of murder, because she had been made an Omega, which were looked down on in Banff, where only Alphas were acceptable, King ordered Princess to be drove out of Banff. She killed the wolves who followed her, and later two more who were sent to kill her, before reaching Jasper, where she warns the wolves of the danger that would soon face them: her father's pack of well over two hundred fifty wolves. Princess almost died because of starvation—her father did not allow her to be fed anything but what she needed to barely make it through each day. Once again, Candy and Sweets, and Eve, the mother of Kate, saved Princess's life.

Shortly a then adolescent Runt reunited with Princess; the unthinkable happened when they had been coming back from the Northern territory, from a mission that was to recruit reinforcements for the battle with Banff that Kate knew would be inevitable. Five rogues attacked Princess and Runt and took them back to Banff. Aside from starvation caused by the rogues, and at the threat of beatings and rape from wolves of their opposite gender, nothing bad directly happened to Princess and Runt until King and Queen came to see them. The two wolves, who had married each other just before their re-capturing, threatened the two dominant wolves, and as a result, King clawed out Runt's right eye. It would have suffered from infected if it were not for Princess's actions. Weeks later, near the end of wolf mating season, Princess and Runt mated, only to be found out by King and Queen, and forced to go through what the rogues call "blood sports."

In the first blood sport Princess and Runt fight—they had been allowed to fight in teams—they won because of low blow from Princess, but that rogue would have killed Princess if it wasn't for Runt, King and Queen. King and Queen only saved their daughter's life because she rightfully won this round, and they did not want to have the crowd be disappointed with the results. It also would have violated the rule stating that the victor did the killing, not the loser.

Princess and Runt did not want any more of this, and had been desperate for a way to escape. Princess found that in an eroded area of floor in their cave, and they dug it until they could fit through. Unfortunately, King found them out and Queen, and only Princess escaped, thinking that Runt was dead. On the day before a two-day conflict with the rogues, Princess and all of her mate's family would learn that he survived the attack carried out by five rogues.

During the war, six wolves on the Jasper side are killed—one wolf from the Southern Pack, two from the Northern Pack, and three from the Eastern and Western Packs. These were not the only deaths caused by the rogues, however. Weeks earlier, thirty rogues attacked Jasper, killing the Northern wolves Nars and Ed. Nars was the father of Fleet and Magril, the mate and sister-in-law of Claudette.

In the end, primarily because of their own stupidity, over a hundred of the wolves were dead, including King and Queen. The spring afterwards, Princess gave birth to the first litter she would have with Runt.

Now, Princess was pregnant with a second litter after her encounter with Runt at The Howling Rock, like so many other females. Kate was pregnant with her second litter with Humphrey, after three years of not mating. Other couples whom were expecting puppies next spring included Claws and Scar, Janice and Shakey, Candy and Mooch and Salty, Claudette and Fleet, Stinky and Mica, Melissa and Hutch, and lastly, Magril and a southern wolf called Liam.

All of the younger couples—Princess and Runt, Claudette and Fleet, Stinky and Mica, Magril and Liam—were at the place where Princess and Runt first fell in love with each other. It was, also, where Liam asked Magril if she wanted to be his mate the year before. That was the "swimming hole" located several meters from The Howling Rock. In reality, it was a hot spring, which relaxed their bodies. All eight of these wolves were in the water, just relaxing their bodies. Most of them went on a hunt with the Alphas and Betas earlier today, and were sore from all the running they did. It was the most muscles any of them used since mating with their respective mates.

None of the female wolves was showing any physical signs of being pregnant yet, other than their sudden spouts of overeating. They had already put on some weight since last month. Princess and Claudette were arguably the two fattest of the females. Moreover, Claudette was a "fat" wolf to begin with. Well, the truth is she was bigger than the rest of the females in her body composition and her girth. Fleet knew how heavy Claudette was from when she rode him last month, when he asked her to set up long enough for him to free his front legs, and then she fell down on him. It took the wind out of him. Claudette had a good way of winning arguments: her weight. If she did not like what someone was saying, she just sat on him or her until he or she shut up about it. Claudette was normally too heavy for whomever she sat on to move. Therefore, with her soon to be extreme weight gain from her overeating and pregnancy, she would be even better at doing that.

Princess was the complete opposite of Claudette, even though she was the second fattest of the pregnant females here. It was because of the famine in Banff, in addition to her two years starvation. Princess was much skinnier than Claudette was; she would never be that big again, even with all the food she knew that would go into her belly this year. It would not be until spring—it was mid autumn right now—when these females started having their puppies. _A lot_ of food could be ate in that amount of time, and Princess was hoping that she wouldn't lose all that weight, but she knew that most of it would go away naturally—at least what was brought on by being pregnant, because of the pups in her belly.

"What was that nightmare your mother had?" Fleet asked his mate.

Claudette's tail shook nervously. She did not really want to talk about it.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have ask-"

"No: I'll tell you. Mother said that she had a nightmare about zombies. We all died in it."

There was a gasp from all of the wolves other than Claudette and her brothers. Princess, Magril, Mica and Liam had not known about this until now. It was probably the strangest, most shocking that thing they ever heard. Zombies were not real, and obviously, for that reason, Kate had never seen any, so why would she have a nightmare about them?

One possible explanation for such a nightmare could be something to do with Kate having post-traumatic stress disorder because of the war with the rogues. There was so much death then, even if very few were wolves she knew. Another potential reason for such a nightmare could be all the stress Kate went through when she thought that Runt was dead.

"Claudette, dear," said Fleet, as kind as he could sound. "Zombies don't exist."

"Kate did go through some bad times when we all thought Runt was dead," said Magril, the little sister of Fleet. "I can imagine I would be having terrible nightmares even now if I thought my son was dead, if I had any pups, that is."

"But Kate wasn't having these kind of nightmares when she was thinking Runt was dead," said Liam. That was all he said before he looked down at Magril, who was up to her neck in the warm, bubbling water. Her tongue was hanging out of the side of her mouth, touching the surface of the water. This was how Magril normally acted when she was in a hot spring. It made her sleepy, and she always let herself go this low in the water. Magril's eyes closed, and her ears laid back in a calm fashion. The other wolves would have thought Magril was sleeping if they did not know better.

"I wouldn't worry about it, dear," Fleet said a few minutes later. "Zombies will only exist in nightmares. We'll never have such a thing to worry about." Then he let himself go under the water up to his chin, as Magril had.


	3. The Vegetarians' Dilemma

**Chapter 2**

**The Vegetarians' Dilemma**

"Run Janice!" a dull yellow Omega wolf screamed at her best friend.

"I'm going to turn you bitches into ashes!" a Beta wolf called Claws roared. She was chasing after the Omega wolves Reba and Janice, who were both vegetarians, because they just unintentionally threw leis—a garland of flowers, especially one worn around the neck in Hawaii and other parts of Polynesia—around Claws's neck when she was relaxing in the sun. Claws was not the kind of wolf who put up with such shenanigans from adult wolves. Claws felt like the vegetarians acted more like puppies than adults went they went on about their vegetarian beliefs around the other wolves. It drove her insane to no end. Scar, her mate, felt the same way about such actions.

"You won't get away from me!" she roared at the vegetarians a few minutes later, as she increased her sprinting speed. Moreover, that was probably true, that they would not get away from Claws.

Claws was a wolf once forced to spend the majority of her early life taking part in training to be a hunter. Members of wolf hunting parties were fast wolves when they the Alpha male, or their parents, selected them for training. When they were done with their training, which could last anywhere from an entire winter—even though most caribou were in hibernation that time of you—to an entire year, depending on how much a wolf had trouble learning to hunt. If it took a wolf too long to master the art of hunting, then the "teacher" eventually would kick him or her out of training. Claws proved to be the best "student" during her training, and considered ready to hunt by the instructor before winter was even over.

Claws knew how to frighten wolves; she felt that was the best way to get payback against a wolf without killing them, but making them think she was going to kill them, no questions asked. The best way to frighten sensitive wolves like this, wolves who had no real-world experience and no training in combat or hunting, was to just chase them, and fool them into think she was about to lunge at them, only to jump back. Claws was doing this repeatedly, and the vegetarians screamed _every_ time she got closer to them, snapping her jaws. They never figured out that Claws was doing this intentionally, that they were not just getting lucky every time. To make this work, she had to show no emotion, but it was not easy for Claws when she was getting so much amusement from scaring these two females to death. She was trying to not laugh her head off; such an action would ruin this who ruse.

Obviously, a wolf like Claws—smart, deadly and seductive, which was what made her so deadly—always had more than one plan. A wolf like Claws never traveled alone. In addition, she had a Plan B, and she was not along. Reba and Janice did not even know about the other wolves that were hiding behind the tress and rocks behind a fragment of a log they were running in the direction of. Claw's Plan B, which was actually not real a backup plan but an additional plan she would use to further giving these females payback.

To confuse the vegetarians, Claws stopped in her suddenly, but they kept on running, feeling relieved about this apparent change of heart in Claws. However, as soon as they jumped over that half a log, the vegetarians found themselves tackled by four other Eastern Betas. Scar, the mate of Claws, who was considering getting pregnant soon, before mating season ended. That would be when the snow started falling in large amounts.

The two wolves who did not pin Reba and Janice to the ground were Scar and a female who was his sister-in-law, being Claw's younger biological sister. The other two were just random Betas whom Claws had convinced to help her and Scar with the whole thing they were doing to the vegetarians.

Claws was still wearing the leis Reba and Janice threw over her neck for a reason.

"You see these damn things?" Claws tore the leis off her neck now. "All this is happening to you because you thought it would be a good idea to give me these. You could have at least asked me first, and then I wouldn't have hunted the two of you down like caribou."

"They weren't meant for you!" cried Janice.

"THEN WHO WERE THEY MEANT FOR?" roared Claws, provoking the vegetarians to squirm with fear. They squirmed because they held down.

"We meant to through them around the necks of Candy and Melissa!" screamed Reba. "They'd asked for them!"

"I don't buy that excuse simply because you've used it every single time you've gave me leis in the past," sighed Claws. "I never heard Candy and Melissa say it. Did you, Scar?"

"No. I didn't," said Scar. "And I didn't even see Melissa there. Just Candy, and she was too busy rubbing herself with her tail in places I don't want to talk about to care about getting some flowers."

"Well, then it is time for the payback we had in mind," announced Claws. "You two, bring out the slabs of caribou meat since you aren't busy holding the vegetarians." Claws said the word "vegetarians" in a mocking voice.

"What?" the vegetarians screamed in unison.

"We have to eat caribou meat!" Reba gasped this.

"Yes, you are going to eat caribou meat," said Scar.

"Unless you would rather eat the meat of the wolf—and I don't mean cannibalism—who is setting on your back," said Claws. "I'm sure you can feel that he is in heat, Janice, since he's setting on you. If you can't, then you must be able to smell it at least."

The thought of eating caribou meat made Reba and Janice sick. Not once in their lives had they even touched meat, unless it was Janice blowing Shakey. (No, Janice was not cannibalizing her mate by "eating him"; she was making him feel good.) A more proper way to word it would be she never ate another animal for purposes of giving herself what she needed to survive, being a vegetarian. Her favorite food was fermented berries; it was also Reba's favorite food. Moreover, she would not dare do it to another wolf; she was too loyal to Shakey, as his mate.

The words she uttered next almost provoked Janice to vomit all over Claws and Scar. "I'll eat the caribou meat, if you let us go," said Janice. Reba agreed with a nervous nod.

The slabs of caribou meat, obviously taken from a fresh kill, dropped before the vegetarians. The blood splattered on the ground and all over the faces of Reba and Janice.

"Lick the blood off your lips," Claws ordered, "then get on which eating the meat. I want you to eat _all_ of it, and you will be free to go. But a bit of advice for you both, first: do _not_ ever throw leis in my direction even if a wolf laying next to me requests them. You can walk your leis over to him or her next time. Do you understand me?"

"Yes..." Reba and Janice said in unison.

"Now eat the caribou!"

Reba stuck her tongue out to lick the caribou, expecting it to taste like the most fowl of substances. It was not that bad, but just having any part of her mouth make contact with the flesh of a dead animal made her gag. Janice's reaction was the same.

Janice was the first of the two best friends to take a bite out of this caribou meat; it took her an entire minute to swallow it, and it was not even that big of a bite she took.

"Take a bigger bite, you veggie whore," spat Claws. Janice reluctantly complied, and it was like torture for her to swallow it, as if that miniscule bite was not bad enough.

"What on Earth is going on here?" they heard a voice shout. The voice belonged to a female who did not sound particularly happy.

The five Betas spun around, and they found themselves staring at Kate and Humphrey, running at them, in horror. They seemed to shrink with fear as they let themselves fall into positions of submission. Kate, who was pregnant with a second litter of puppies, and Humphrey, her mate, was the Alpha female and the Alpha male of the united Eastern and Western packs, sometimes called the Central Pack when wolves did not want to use so many wolves.

"Reba, Janice," said Kate, with anger—directed at the Eastern, wolves—in her voice, "spit the caribou meat out. You don't need to eat that."

The vegetarians spit the chewed up caribou meat that they had in their mouths when Kate and Humphrey saw what was going on, after coming out of their cave. (It was morning, and they were just waking up. Kate and Humphrey quite often woke up later in the day than everyone else in their pack.) Immediately after emptying their mouths, the vegetarians emptied their stomachs of everything they just ate, and what they had ate before. So when they were done vomiting, there was a strange mixture of chewed up caribou meat, chewed up fermented berries and vegetables, and stomach acid in the bushes Reba and Janice were pulling their heads out of. Their vomit coated their lips.

"I would have expected better than this from you wolves," Kate chastised them. "Especially you and Scar," she said to the two older wolves. "I thought Tony and his late mate taught you two better than this when they raised you as orphans."

"Kate...Kate..."

"Don't try and get sympathy from me Scar!" Kate barked, causing Claws, Scar, and the other three Betas all to yelp with fear, and tuck their tails between their legs. "You are lucky I don't force you to eat like Reba and Janice do for the next week! You wouldn't like that, would you?"  
" No..." yelped Claws; she then covered her mouth with her paw. Claws feared that Kate was going to pluck the nearby berry bush, and shove a paw-full of them down her throat.

"Then why would you force Reba and Janice to eat caribou meat when they are vegetarians if you wouldn't eat what they would just because you are carnivores?" Humphrey snapped. "Sounds like you don't care if something is wrong until it is done to you!"

"Get out of my sight," Kate commanded. "You wolves disappoint me. Your actions are something I would have expected the rogues to do to their slaves!"

"But-"

"GO!" roared Kate. Yelping, the five Betas darted off as fast they could when Kate showed her massive teeth.

Kate and Humphrey turned to Reba and Janice. "Go on home," Kate said in a low, calm voice. "You've been through enough. I'll deal with Claws, Scar and those other three later."

"Do you want Kate and I to escort you back to your cave?" asked Humphrey.

"No, thank you," gagged Janice. "We'll be fine." Then the ill-looking vegetarians took off.

"I feel sorry for those two," whispered Kate. "If only the Eastern wolves knew what Reba and Janice went through as puppies, then maybe they would understand why they are vegetarians..."


	4. A Caribou Hunt Goes Wrong

**Chapter 3**

**A Caribou Hunt Goes Wrong**

Two days later, Claws and a Western Beta wolf were leading three other Betas and two Alphas to caribou territory. These seven wolves were going there to train two female wolves—a Western wolf and an Eastern Wolf—how to hunt. They were both Alphas. Their parents felt their daughters were old enough to learn how to hunt, and smart enough to stay out of trouble. Seven wolves were always necessary to instruct young wolves simply for the safety of the wolves whom are being trained and even the instructors. A stampede of caribou could happen, unexpectedly, at any time, and the wolves had to be ready for such a scenario.

Aside from doing this to avoid her punishment for what she did to the vegetarian wolves, Reba and Janice, that was why Claws volunteered. She could not imagine what her mate, Scar, and those other three Betas who helped her out, were going through right now. Two days earlier, they forced the vegetarians to consume slabs of caribou meat. They happened to be in the act of doing so by the Alpha female, Kate, and the Alpha male, Humphrey, who was her mate. Kate and Humphrey witnessed it all and were obviously not very pleased with the Betas.

Claws would be receiving her punishment with Scar and the other Betas if she had not volunteered for the family of these two girls, who were not sisters but best friends. Normally, she was a wolf who was not afraid of anything—nothing at all. However, that was not the case now. Claws was terrified of learning what her punishment would be when the training of these two young wolves was over. Kate had been there when Claws volunteered—knowing that the only reason she did was to delay her punishment.

Regardless, Kate did thank Claws for wanting to train these two wolves how to hunt. It was always up to other Alphas and Betas to train young wolves if they did not have their own puppies; because the parents normally had things to do that caused them to be too busy to do it themselves. Most parents wanted to train their own pups, but they cannot do it.

Claws was thinking about what kind of punishment she would receive from Kate, as the others instructed the two young Alphas.

"Get your head out of your tailhole, Claws, and stop worrying so much about how badly you'll be punished. Pay attention!" one of the Alphas snapped. The two young Alphas started whimpering.

"For crying out loud, stop!" Claws snapped back. "Watch your language about the young'uns! And watch how you talk to me or you won't be talking again."

"What can you do, Claws?" the same wolf mocked her.

"I'll tear your tongue off," she retorted briefly. "I'd tell you what else I'd tear off, but I'd be using words a young'un shouldn't hear."

Nobody said anything else about the subject.

"Where are the caribou?" one of the young Alphas asked.

Claws sniffed the air. That was all it took.

"They're several feet from here," she said. "The caribou are just around that bend. Now, listen up, young'uns. We are not going to rush into this. We need to take this step-by-step and very carefully."

"What for?" the young Alpha, a male, asked Claws. He had a confused expression on his face.

"You are young wolves," one of the Betas said. Claws shot a nasty look at him.

"No. Young wolves can hunt better than any of you if they're trained well enough." Claws received nasty looks from all of them, but they backed off when she showed her teeth. Nevertheless, really, she did not give a shit how they looked at her. However, when they said things about her, well, that was a good way to die. "If we take this slowly, we'll have to ready to hunt very soon. You both perfect hunters in a day or two. Now, this is how we'll begin your training: watching the caribou, from a safe position, to learn their movement patterns and their grazing patterns."

"Why?"

"Quiet, you stupid runt," a Beta snapped. She started crying into Claws's leg.

Claws looked the Beta in the eyes with a death stare. "If you don't have anything that is useful to add, then don't talk. I do not need you making the pups sad, and definitely, I do not need any of you to train these two if you going to talk to them like this. I might as well do it on my OWN!" she roared.

"Well, go ahead Mrs. Arrogant," one of the two Alphas mocked her. "This is going to be good. I how long it will take until she needs our assistance again. I don't even know if we should help her!" he added loudly, but Claws and the two young Alphas were not there to hear that part. If she had been there, Claws probably would have murdered him. Literally, she would murder him.

* * *

Around the bend, it was Claws and the two young Alphas who were now under the watch of one of the seven older wolves. Training young wolves how to hunt when there was a massive herd of caribou in the area was absolutely the _worst_ time for the others to be acting how they right now. How would they bring an adult caribou down, just her and these two wolves that were hardly out of their puppy days, which had no hunting experience at all? They would be lucky to take down a young or adolescent caribou, even a sick caribou!

Kate and Humphrey will not be happy when they found out from Claws and the two she was responsible to train on her own that the other six wolves were not willing to help with the training just because of some stupid argument that they started. Claws wanted to go back to where they probably _still_ were, and just curse them up and down, and scream at them! She just wanted to call them "Damn, stupid fools" or "Dumbasses" for their actions, rather, their _lack_ of actions! Of course, she thought, they were so dense in the head that they would probably think she was calling them "stupid donkeys" if she used "dumbasses" as an insult. In addition, she would curse them all out if it were not for the two young Alphas; they would hear it all if she did. Wolves knew Claws for screaming when she used foul language.

First, it was not wise to use foul language around young wolves. They could be sensitive about such words. If they complained to their parents about Claws cursing, their parents could tell Kate and/or Humphrey, and then Claws would be in worse trouble than she already was. Other than that, it was just a bad idea to leave such inexperienced young'uns alone, when they were so close to something that could as potentially dangerous as a herd of caribou. There were young caribou in the herd, and that alone made the entire herd more dangerous than it already was. Even if they did succeed in ending the life of a young caribou, the parents may still go after the wolves, just to avenge their death son or daughter. Moreover, there was always the risk of being on the _wrong_ end of a stampede. That was being in the direction the herd was stampeding.

Claws let them know, in a whisper of course, to communicate to each other in whispers, of course, before she started instructing them.

"Get in the bushes, kids," whispered Claws. All three of them slipped into the bright green bush. The young Alphas were on either side of Claws.

* * *

Several feet back, the two Alphas and the four Betas were talking amongst each other about how to get Claws in some trouble.

"I say that one of us should go back to the Western Territory and let Kate and Humphrey know that Claws went rogue and is training the young'uns by herself," the female Alpha said, "despite us warning her not to do it. And when they get here, Claws will be in even more trouble yet if they see her alone with them, and she is doing anything to try and take down a caribou."

"That seems a little low, doesn't it?" the male Alpha questioned.

"Not really. Claws needs to get in trouble than she already will after we tell Kate and Humphrey; she does not get in enough trouble. Moreover, I do not mean over something like bullying some vegetarians like Reba and Janice. I mean putting the lives of two young wolves in danger when she was one of many wolves trusted with their lives."

"But won't Kate and Humphrey wonder why we're not with her, if we let them know that we know where Claws is?" one of the Betas asked.

"You fool," the female Alpha said. "We won't let it be known that we knew where Claws was the whole time. What we will do is help Kate and Humphrey going looking for Claws, and we'll make it seem like we don't know she's right around the corner."

"I don't want any part of this," the male Alpha said. "I'm going back to the Western Territory to do the opposite of what you're planning. I'll let them know that _you all_ got into it with Claws and didn't want to help her just because you were abusing the pups."

"Go ahead," the other Alpha, the female, said. "You won't make it back."

"You're all talk and no action," he said and then ran off. The rest of the wolves shouted insulting profanities at him as he ran back to the Western Territory.

* * *

"I can't believe them!" he said to himself when he could no longer hear them shouting at him. "How could they treat Claws and those young'uns so poorly? Well, they'll regret their actions when Kate and Humphrey here about it." He blinked. "I shouldn't talk to myself so much. That's a sign of someone going insane."

Nevertheless, he thought, who could possibly remain sane around wolves like the ones he just left behind? As soon as he thought this, a strong smell hit his nose. Well, assaulted would be a more accurate term for how strong of a smell it was. He could describe it best as an odor of rotting flesh. Although it did concern him, obviously, it smelled like something that was dead for weeks, if not months. The most confusing thing of all was that this odor was coming from all directions. Did it mean that there were dead bodies in the bushes and trees all around him? Although he knew of no such incidents in the past, that many dead bodies could mean there was a murderous wolf in Jasper. Yet the smell of rotting flesh smelled as if it was weeks to months ago, so did that mean whoever killed them had been here that long?

_Fantastic_, he thought. This would give him yet another incident he would have to report to Kate and Humphrey when he got back to the Western Territory. Moreover, it would be the most urgent story, so he would let them knew about the odor of rotting flesh before he told the Alpha male and the Alpha female about what those wolves did to Claws and the young Alphas.

Soon, the Alpha began to feel as if the smell of rotting flesh was following him, as much as that did not make any sense. It seemed that no matter how far he went from the area where he first smelled it, it went with him. In addition, so did some sort of strange, incoherent, and loud moans. It sounded like multiple wolves moaning. He could hear shambling footsteps of wolves, even through the foliage on both sides of him.

His hackles and ears rose, out of fear, as he headed west. No matter how far he went, the odor of rotting flesh and all those moans and shambling footsteps followed him.

Finally, he could not take anymore and stopped.

"Show yourselves, whoever you are!" he commanded, with his voice shaking in fear. "Either you cowards come on out from wherever you are or stop following me altogether!"

Shaking with fear the whole time, he waited more than ten minutes for some physical sign of whoever it was. Moreover, when whoever, whatever, it was that was following him came out of the forest, what they were horrified this Alpha. It made him wish that he had just kept going until he was back to the Western Territory. Now, he could be leading them back to his homeland, if they were not there already, that is. They were wolves, but not like any wolf he encountered before. They looked so strange. With horribly rotting bodies that had multiple bites of flesh taken out of their bodies, they stunk like death, were moaning, and shambling toward him.

He froze with fear and that was his downfall. They surrounded him and he screamed as he vanished in a swarm of wolves.

* * *

A blood-curdling scream filled the air. Claws and the young Alphas she was training did not hear it, but the wolves who left them behind did hear it. They knew who it was: the wolf that left them twenty-some minutes ago. They all cast looks of concern, even fear, at each other.

"W-wh-what h-happened?" one of the Betas gasped. All of the Betas seemed to be looking to the female Alpha for some sort of answer.

"W-why are you l-looking at me?" the female Alpha gasped. "I-I don't k-know what's g-going on!"

"Wolves!" another of the Betas gasped suddenly.

"Holy-" one of the female Betas gasped.

"Look at their flesh!" another screamed. "It's all rotted and even ate to the bone!"

"And yet they are still alive! Look how many there are! There's at least twenty-five, if not, thirty of them!"

"R-r-run..." the Alpha whimpered, but not one of them had the courage to run. Like their already fallen counterpart, they froze with fear as the horde made its way toward them.

* * *

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Stop!" Claws whispered harshly, before the young Alphas could go for a very young caribou that was several meters from any adult.

"That sounded like the other adults," the older of the two Alphas said.

"I know," gasped Claws. "It sounds like they saw something that scared them to death." She felt like that was a pathetically incorrect statement when she heard screams of "NO!" and "GET AWAY!" and "HELP!" before the screams were no longer audible, replaced by just screams of agony and horror. One-by-one, the voices of the wolves faded away to nothing until all was silent.

"THE CARIBOU ARE STAMPEDING!" the youngest Alpha screamed.

"We're fine," Claws said, hoping to keep the young'uns calm, even though her voice was shaking with fear. "But we n-need to get back to the W-Western Territory."

"Dear God," gasped Claws, as the young'uns were puking their guts out.

There was very little left of her hunting partners. Their remains were a mixture of flesh, blood, bones and gore was all over the clearing where they had stayed behind. Their legs, their bodies, had the appearance of bones chewed down to the bone, and even their bones had bite marks in them. Claws knew immediately, without having to look that closely at the remains—something she did not want to do—that wolves did this to her friends. She felt bad about being angry with them because they were now dead.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Claws screamed at the top of her lungs. "DON'T LOOK BACK!" Then they took off, not stopping until they reached the border of the Western Territory.

Kate and Humphrey, among other members of their family, approached the screaming and crying wolves—Claws and the two young Alphas—with confused looks on their faces.

"What happened?" gasped Kate.

"We're all that's alive from the hunting party!" screamed the youngest Alpha.

"Something killed the rest of them!" the older one screamed. "There's nothing left of them! They're torn to pieces!"


	5. Conversation about What Claws Saw

**Chapter 4**

**Conversation about What Claws Saw**

"Claws, calm down," said Kate, "and tell us what happened."

"I CAN'T CALM DOWN!" screamed Claws. "They were all torn to pieces—oh, the blood, the gore, the bones, they were everywhere!—it makes me sick JUST REMEMBERING IT!"

"Can you show us where you we-" Humphrey began.

"NO!" Claws and the two young Alphas screamed together.

"You won't get any of us to go back there!" the older Alpha cried.

"If you want to see it for yourselves, then go there," spat Claws, wiping the vomit off her muzzle, "but don't complain to me when you're being eaten alive by other wolves!"

"Excuse me?" gasped Kate.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, no, not that, Claws. What did you say about being eaten alive?"

"The bodies of my hunting partners—specifically their bones—had bite marks that only a wolf's teeth could inflict," explained Claws, who cringed as she recalled those awful memories.

"But there's only one pack of wolves that are cannibalistic," whined Claudette, the oldest pup and only daughter of Kate and Humphrey.

"The rogue back from Banff," coughed Stinky, the middle sibling and oldest son of Kate and Humphrey.

"But King and Queen are dead!" Princess gasped. Princess was a Beta wolf who was once a member of the pack of wolves they were talking about; her father and mother, whom she refused to address as such, were the Alpha male and the Alpha female before they died in a battle for control of Jasper last year. "The rogues surrendered after King and Queen died!"

"That doesn't mean they wouldn't be seeking vengeance now," said Fleet, a former Northern Wolf and the mate of Claudette. "Remember, King and Queen spent over two years building up their army. Who's to say that another wolf and his or her mate didn't take over and rebuild the army again?"

"Did you see how many of them basically killed themselves after King's death?" asked Melissa, who, like Princess, was once a rogue who was very loyal to King, but left his pack when she finally had a chance to. "I wouldn't believe it unless I saw it for myself, that the rogues have the morale to rebuild their army again. I know, I know, about all their good at is sex, sex, sex—you get the point—but would they really use all those new wolves for their army? I would think they would be more worried about finding food in that hellhole of a park more than starting another war they knew they'd lose."

"What do we do about this now?" asked Magril, the little sister of Fleet; her mate from the Southern Pack, Liam, was sitting next to her. Like many other females—including Kate, Claudette, Lilly, Princess, Mica, Candy, Janice and Claws—Magril was pregnant with the young of her mate. "Whether it is the rogues or something else, the situation doesn't change any. Wolves are dead and we do not know who killed them. Don't forget that three Betas went missing at The Howling Rock a few days ago."

"They haven't been found yet?" Kate blinked. She looked at Humphrey. "No one updated me on the situation."

"Mother," said Runt, the youngest of his little, and the mate of Princess, who was now pregnant with their second litter of puppies, "you didn't want to know anything until they were found."

"Yes, yes." Kate nodded. "But...if all of the wolves who were with Claws died, then what has become of them? When were they last scene?"  
" At The Howling Rock," said Mica, the pregnant mate of Stinky.

The expression—one of horror—on Kate's face worried her family, Claws and the two young Alphas who were cowering between Claws's front legs and her body.

"What's wrong, Kate?" asked Claws. She wrapped her arms around the young wolves; they were crying. Claws looked down at them, feeling bad for them. Wolves as young as them should not witness such a gory scene. They never should.

"In my nightmare about zombies," Kate said slowly, "there were three Betas who disappeared at The Howling Rock. We later found them dead, torn to pieces just how you, Claws, described what happened to your hunting partners."

There was a gasp. What if Kate's night was a sign of certain events to come; obviously, the zombies would not happen—or at least that was what the wolves hoped—but what if the part of her nightmare was reality? There was one part of her nightmare, about wolves turning up dead for no reason, which frightened her the most. No one said anything, not wanting to remind Kate of her nightmare.

"I would call it just coincidence," said Fleet. "Let's not worry about the whole zombie think too much. It'll never happen."

Kate wiped away tears.

"Did I say something wrong, Kate?" asked Fleet. He hid behind Claudette, almost expecting Kate to explode like Eve, her mother, would. She did not, though.

"No," sighed Kate. "I just need to relax. I am going to go speak with Reba and Janice for a while. Maybe some fermented berries will easy my mind..."


	6. Kate Spends a Day with Reba and Janice

**Chapter 5**

**Kate Spends a Day with Reba and Janice**

Reba and Janice were the vegetarians of Jasper Park. They were both Omegas due to their diet. Reba had a brown coat of a fur, and Janice a banana yellow coat of fur. Reba and Janice, because of their vegetarian diet, were two wolves who were constantly the target of physical and verbal abuse. The most recent incident involved Claws and Scar, and some of their friends, attempting to force-feed caribou meat to Reba and Janice. They would have been successful—beyond getting Reba to eat a miniscule amount—if it was not for the sudden intervention of Kate and Humphrey.

Just as they were living harsh lives now, Reba and Janice's lives started harshly—and probably always would be. The vegetarians were born to two different families about five years ago not in Jasper but Banff. They were born years before King and Queen moved to and conquered Banff, when Princess was not even an adolescent yet. If it was not for a bad twist of fate at the beginning of their lives, Reba and Janice would still be living in Banff. If they did not lose their lives in the battle for control of Jasper, like so many rogues did last year, anyway.

It happened when Reba and Janice were only puppies. They did not have any fur on their bodies. It was all fuzz. The vegetarians still remembered the day they lost their parents and they were so young then. It was a stormy night and the two families had been sleeping soundly when two different teams of eight wolves snuck into each of the caves. They were there per orders of the wolf who was the Alpha male before King showed up, acting on the rumors that the families of Reba and Janice, among others, were plotting to overthrow him and his mate. Although the Alpha male of the time had not seen it that way, he and his mate were almost as corrupt of wolves as King and Queen had been.

While Janice saw her parents slaughtered before her eyes, the intruders at least interrogated Reba's parents before slaughtering them. These sixteen murderers had felt as if these two puppies would not be worth wasting their energy to kill them. They felt that Reba and Janice were runts and that they would not live long without their parents. Specifically, they would not survive without the milk from their mothers' breasts.

The entire opposite happened, however. Reba and Janice survived and left their caves. The only reason they survived long enough to find the border of Jasper and Banff—because none of the adult wolves paid them any attention, and vice versa. Reba and Janice found each other at the border of Jasper and Banff. That was where their lifelong friendship—and their vegetarian habits—began. Starving and weak, Reba and Janice ate the first thing they saw. That berry bush appeared massive in size to the tiny puppies.

They ate a blueberry bush clean of everything but the branches. It actually took that many berries to fill their empty stomachs, as small as they were. At the time, it had been several days since their last meal, which had been the milk of their now deceased mothers. For some odd reason, the vegetarians remember those blueberries having a milky taste to them; it even reminded them both, slightly, of their mothers' milk.

Two days later, wolves from the Western Pack of Jasper rescued Reba and Janice. They were wolves from a hunting party who lost track of a caribou they had been tracking for at least three hours. First, they had smelled the scent of wolf pups for some time, instead of caribou, and that led to them coming across Reba and Janice feasting on another blueberry bush. The older wolves had considered this one of the strangest things they had ever seen, even if they knew these two pups were orphans.

The hunting party carried the two pups back to their territory, were they introduced Reba and Janice to Winston and Eve, who, back then, were as young as Kate was now. Winston had called a meeting of every wolf in his pack, expecting to find a new family for the two girls quickly. His reasoning had been that no family could resist adopting two young girl wolves like Reba and Janice, if they knew they became orphans at such a young age. No one wanted Reba and Janice. Maybe that would not have happened if Winston had not mentioned that Reba and Janice appeared to be vegetarians. That was something Winston and Eve had learned when they tried to feed Reba and Janice some caribou meat. (They only knew the names of these two pups after Eve said she would name the pups, and they told them that the names their parents gave them were Reba and Janice.)

As for the caribou meat, the pups slapped it away, almost instinctively, when Winston offered it to them. They refused to eat anything that gave to them until the Alpha male and the Alpha female offered them what looked like a full-course meal of plants, berries, and roots. Winston and Eve only considered that because some of the wolves, who found the pups, eating a berry bush, suggested trying it.

Because no one who was a wolf wanted to adopt vegetarian wolf pups—and they didn't want to have birds, chipmunks, or any other rodent that wolves normally considered a snack, adopt them—Reba and Janice made the decision of what to do for themselves, even if they were so young. They decided to spend their lives with no one but each other.

Even today, five years later, Reba and Janice still lived in the same cave that gave to them by Winston and Eve when they were still puppies, after Winston deemed them Omegas because of their diet. This cave became theirs only because the previous resident of the cave passed away the day before. That previous resident had been Winston's mother who died from a terrible disease in her breasts that the wolves had no name for; humans called it "cancer," or something to likes of that word.

Now that she was pregnant with the young of her mate, Shakey, her mate, and her best friend Reba were forcing Janice to take things easy. Reba, still her best friend now, and Shakey did all of the foraging Janice normally would have done for herself, in addition to finding their own food. Although Janice complained about it because she literally only just learned she was pregnant, Reba and Shakey did this for her regardless. They were just too nice not to gather food for Janice. Janice did not want them doing this so much now that she had even offered to give Shakey a blowjob. In addition, that she would even go as far as to put the _whole thing_ in her mouth, to wrap her tongue around it, to suck on it, and to even swallow any, and all, fluids that came out of his reproductive organ, if he stopped gathering food for her until she was heavily pregnant. Moreover, she would do it if, also, Shakey told Reba to stop helping her out as well, because "it was getting annoying real fast." Those were Janice's words.

Shakey accepted his mate's offer, obviously. Therefore, she did it to him and he enjoyed the feelings of pleasure that came from Janice sucking him. However, Janice would soon learn that her own mate had tricked her into doing that to him for nothing in return. After he recovered from his climax, Shakey let Janice know that not even, to quote him, "being deep throated by her wouldn't even get him to stop gathering food for her."

That made Janice feel used. Shakey had been stuck down her throat, still, when he said this, so she bit him—gently, of course, since they were mates—for tricking her. Needless to say: that _hurt_, to get his reproductive organ bit by another wolf. It did not matter how gentle of a bite it was; teeth were teeth. Wolf teeth were sharp, like what humans called "daggers."

This all took place about an hour ago. Now, Kate, the Alpha female of their pack, was in their cave. The vegetarians did not even know why. Kate did not need to ask about the white coating she saw on Janice's muzzle. Mating season would not be over until the first snowfall, but wolves did not mate more than once just because the male still had feelings of heat. A female wolf's heat normally ended once she found out she was pregnant; that was all females wanted. The only other option was for a female wolf to use her mouth and her tongue to make her mate feel good.

Like Janice, Kate knew from experience that the bodily fluids of a male wolf were usually salty in taste. But sometimes in tasted like caribou meat, which was even saltier—or berries, in the case of Shakey—depending on what the male ate before getting sucked off by their mates. Kate had admitted to Lilly when she got herself wasted on fermented berries that she was particularly with her tongue, which was bigger than the tongue of most wolves. Kate's muzzle was bigger, too.

"What brings you here, ma'am?" asked Janice.

"I'm not going vegetarian," said Kate, "but I want to know what it is like to be one. Therefore, for the rest of the day, I want to be with you two. I want to eat what you eat, and do what you two and Shakey do on a daily basis—when it comes to your diet that is."

"Why the sudden decision, ma'am?" asked Reba.

"I need to relieve stress. You know about my nightmare, the missing wolves, and the wolves who died in the Eastern Territory?" The vegetarians nodded. "I'm sure you can think of some way your diets can ease my mind."

"Well," said Janice, "Reba and I were about to go looking for our dinner," she lied. "We know a good place near the borders of the Southern and the Western Territories. There are a lot of berries, plants, roots, grains and so on growing there." Janice winked at Kate suddenly; she stared with confusion. "And I know that you're a fermented berry addict—there is a fresh patch of fermented berries, there, too."

* * *

"Look at all this!" Kate gasped as she, Reba and Janice made their way into a massive box canyon overgrown with all the kinds of things that the vegetarians liked to eat. "Where can we start?"

Kate never ate like this before, other than those fermented berries she loved so much, so she was not sure what to start with.

"I suggest we start with the apples growing from the trees," said Reba. "We normally never can get them for ourselves unless one happens to fall from the branches when we're here, but you, Kate, know how to climb trees thanks to your son, Runt. You can climb up it and knock apples off the branches for us."

"Will do," said Kate, who ran to the tree with Reba and Janice.

Kate dug her claws into the bark of the apple tree and started climbing up it. Kate went to a branch that had a good amount of fresh-looking apples growing on it.

"How do I get them loose?" Kate shouted down at the vegetarians.

"Just struck them with your paw," instructed Janice.

Kate did this for a minute straight. She proved to be efficient at knocking apples from the branch. In that minute, there was a pile of at least thirty apples before Reba and Janice. Kate climbed back down to ground level.

"You get first picks, Kate," said Reba, "since you are the one who got the apples for us."

Kate opened her jaws and took a bite out of a bright red apple. She chewed it up and swallowed it, loving the taste of this fruit, which she had never tasted until now. Kate ate the rest of that apple and five more in a period of three-and-a-half minutes.

"What else?" Kate asked anxiously. "I loved those apples, and I want to try something else before I go for those fermented berries."

Janice said, "A personal favorite of mine is the onion bulbs that grow in ground by the apple tree." She pointed to a spot where there was a garden of onion bulbs growing.

Kate knew what to do this time. She started digging up where the stems, she assumed that was what it was called, were sticking out of the ground. Every time Kate got one of the onions free from the soil, she would flick it into a pile with one of her front toes. In the end, Kate had made a pile of fifteen or so large onion bulbs.

Kate ate the largest of the onion bulbs. It was a little salty and it crunched as she chewed it. The onion had a spicy and tangy aftertaste; it was a little hot yet it was sweet. It was a confusing mixture of flavors. Kate's eyes were watering heavily and she was smacking her jaws to work up saliva. It was burning her mouth more than she had expected. Kate knew nothing about onions; she had not been expecting the onion to start salty, and then go spicy, tangy, and hot. The best way to describe how hot and spicy the aftertaste was that Kate's mouth felt like it was on fire.

She started screaming, it was so bad now. "I NEED WATER! WHERE IS THE WATER?"

"Over there," Janice said. She and Reba were laughing hysterically as Kate ran to the pond a few feet away. Kate dived into the water; it splashed up onto the bank. She took in a mouthful of the cold water before she resurfaced, sputtering and coughing.

"What?" Janice taunted. "Is that onion blub too hot for you, Kate?"

"Yes!" Kate cried, as she climbed out of the pond. Kate shook herself dry. "I think it is about time I get some of those fermented berries...and no sides of onions!" she added sourly.

* * *

When Kate was done with snarfing those fermented berries she loved so much, she was completely wasted.

Reba and Janice were shocked to see how Kate looked and how she was acting. Her eyes were glazed over and rolling around in her head. Kate lost her balance, as well as her ability to control what she said and how she spoke. Kate's words were very slurred and just as vulgar; she was letting out random expletives, profanities. Her actions were strange too; she was trying to hug anything and anyone she was. That included a tree and some bushes that Kate cursed out for not hugging her in return.

It was then that Reba and Janice learned how vulgar Kate could be. "Well-" she hiccupped. "-fu-fuck you too. I won't-" she hiccupped again. "-hug you again!" Kate was ranting about how trees did not hug her in return like Reba and Janice did (just to humor her). "I-In-Inc-Inconsiderate f-f-fuc-" she hiccupped. "See if I gave a damn to hug you ag-again. Ugh, I'm gonna puke-" And then she did just as she happened to turn in the direction of Reba. It got all over her. Reba started screaming with disgust, not that Kate noticed. Those fermented berries had wasted Kate too much for her to realize her own actions, including her words.

Humphrey saw it all. His jaw had hit the ground, as the figure of speech went.

"What happened to Kate?" he asked Reba and Janice.

They did not have a chance to explain before Kate ran to Humphrey. In her slurred voice, Kate said, "W-wh-who are you? Yo-you're kinda hot... especially here..." Kate was stroking Humphrey between his legs with her right paw. She did not even realize she was giving her mate a paw job. "I-I-I think it is ti-time I-I put my tong-tongue to work."

Humphrey gasped when shock when Kate stuck her head between his legs and began licking him with her rough tongue. Reba and Janice covered their eyes with disbelief, and a bit of shock. Humphrey immediately jumped back from Kate, who whimpered and looked at him with a drunken expression. She had a longing, lustful look in her eyes. Kate wanted more of some action down low on this wolf she did not recognize, she was so wasted.

Humphrey ran behind Reba and Janice, even though he doubted they would be able to stop Kate from getting a taste of him.

"I'll ask again," said Humphrey. "What's wrong with Kate?"

"Nothin's wrong with me!" she slurred. "I'm fine! Just let me suck your dick!"

"Whoa...that's too far, Kate!" Janice failed at cutting the drunk Alpha female off. Kate finished her sentence away.

"Kate ate a good amount of fermented berries and now she's gone insane," Reba explained briefly.

"Let me at it, you! I want the D!" Kate was ranting like a puppy, screaming and cursing about wanting Humphrey. "I don't know who he is, but I want him! I want him, damn it!"

"I think I'd best leave," gasped Humphrey.

"I will not let you leave until I get you in my mouth!" screamed Kate. Kate did get something in her mouth that sobered her up pretty quick. Onion bulbs she had dug up were what were stuck in her mouth. In a sober voice, Kate started screaming about how her mouth was on fire. Again, she jumped in the lake. When she resurfaced, Kate was sober, shockingly.

"Ugh," she gasped. "I didn't say anything that offended you, did I, Humphrey?"

"Well, other than licking him, and ranting about how you 'want his D,' to quote you," said Janice. "No. You did not. I've never heard you curse so much, though."

"Oh...my," Kate gasped again. Then she apologized to her mate for even saying such things when other wolves could hear it.

Humphrey was not angry with Kate; he never could be. "You don't have to apologize to me," he said. "Just go easy on the fermented berries in the future..."


	7. A Vegetarian Meets her Demise

**Chapter 6**

**A Vegetarian Meets her Demise**

"Well, that was a little scary," said Janice, addressing Reba. "Never in my life would I have expected the Alpha female, of all wolves, to act like she did. I mean, did you really think that Kate would ever get wasted on fermented berries?"

Reba and Janice were no longer gorging themselves at the "garden," as they called it, at the border of the Western Territory and the Southern Territory. They were sunning themselves at the highest spot of The Howling Rock. This would probably be the only time they ever get to be this high up on The Howling Rock. Any rank of wolf, Alpha, Beta, or Omega, could howl anywhere on this mountain, even if they were not married to an Alpha, the other wolves often treat Reba and Janice poorly. They usually found themselves howling with the other Omegas who chose to stay at the base of the mountain or just the two of them and Shakey in one of the box canyons.

No one ever came to The Howling Rock when it was not a full moon unless it was individual couples. In addition, for sure, no one ever came to The Howling Rock during the day unless it was for the reasons Reba and Janice were here—to sun themselves—or for more personal reasons. When The Howling Rock was not in use for howling, it was normally a good place for place for couples to go and mate. Of course, not many ever came to the top of this mountain; they went into the box canyons or the small caves instead. It was more private, they thought. Kate got pregnant twice, once very recently, and both times took place here, at The Howling Rock.

Reba and Janice were both lying on their backs with their eyes closed. They were several feet apart, their lips blue from the blueberries they ate on the way here. Reba was awake, but Janice had ate so much in the past hour that she felt like she had no choice but to fall asleep when the vegetarians got to The Howling Rock. Janice was snoring at a low tone.

Reba, on the other hand, was watching the clouds go overhead, and thinking to herself about what they seemed to look like. Some of them looked like, well, what they were—clouds. Others resembled animals like wolves and birds. Reba could have sworn on her life that she saw a wolf that looked just like Janice and Shakey in the clouds. What they were doing, on the other hand, was up for debate. Reba did not want to think about how the cloud that resembled Janice positioned over the cloud that resembled Shakey.

_Anyway..._she thought. Some of the clouds looked like bears. _Enough with the stinkin' clouds that look like animals_. Reba began pay attention to the clouds she thought resembled some of her favorite foods, like blueberries, onion bulbs, and apples. Reba could not help but chuckle lowly when she thought about onion bulbs and how they had burned Kate's mouth when she ate them.

It was difficult not to laugh at how Kate had acted after snarfing so many fermented berries; she had been wasted—absolutely wasted! Kate did not even care that she had licked Humphrey's crotch or said that she would keep going using some profane words. Kate even claimed that she wanted it. It was not funny then, but now that it was over, it struck Reba as hilarious. One of the most hilarious things she ever saw in her life—that was for sure. In her mind, secretly, Reba had actually been hoping that Kate would at least begin to suck Humphrey off before she had stuck those onion bulbs in her mouth. Nevertheless, it was hilarious even if she did not have a chance to do anything to Humphrey beyond licking him.

_Oh,_ Reba thought a few minutes later. _It is starting to rain._ She woke up Janice, and the two waited the storm out in the closest cave they could find—it was just enough room for the two of them. The rain was light; it only lasted ten minutes. Still, the vegetarians waited an extra five minutes before they left the cave. The ground was wet, but they were just glad it was no longer raining. Naturally, wolves had a strong dislike of the rain, snow or anything that got them wet involuntarily. The only time a wolf wanted to get wet was when they took a bath and not any other time.

Reba let out a gasp, "Blood!"

"What?" Janice gasped as a reaction. "Where is it?"

"There!" Reba pointed with her right front paw, which was shaking. The blood was watered-down because of the rain. Where it was surprised them even more. It was where Janice had been laying before the rain started.

"That is not my blood!" argued Janice when Reba asked her if she had been bleeding due to natural reactions to her pregnancy. "I would know if I bleed! Do I need to show you? There is no blood on me!"

"Then where did it come from?" Reba cocked her head.

"I don't know, but I think we should get out of here," whispered Janice.

"What if there is someone wounded here?" Reba argued.

"What if whoever wounded that someone is still here, if that someone was wounded by someone else? Do you want to be around if there is a killer in the area?"

"No..."

"Then let's go." The vegetarians turned around but they did not run. It was not a pretty sight to see. Just like the ones that killed all of Claws's hunting partners a few days ago, the wolves that were shambling towards Reba and Janice showed signs of rot. They all had bite marks inflicted by other wolves; some were missing body features like an eyeball, or two, or a nose or an ear. Some were missing all of those.

"Don't c-come any closer!" Reba commanded, her voice shaking with fear, as she backed away. Reba was so scared that she was unaware of the fact that Janice was not backing away with her until these strange-acting wolves were only a foot from her.

Reba froze a few seconds later when she did notice how Janice was not moving. She started screaming for her friend to run. Janice was so scared that she did not hear Reba's screams; she could not even think to run. Janice knew these wolves were dangerous but she could not make herself run, though.

"Run, Janice! Run! Run!" Reba was constantly repeating the word "Run" repeatedly until there was no hope for her friend.

This random, strange group of wolves tore Janice apart before Reba's eyes. Janice screamed all the while until there was no life left in the yellow wolf for her to scream.

Reba took off from this bloody scene. Some of the attackers followed her while some remained to consume what little was left of Janice. Reba was screaming and wailing as she ran away.


	8. Not Much of a Moonlight Howl

**Chapter 7**

**"Not much of a Moonlight Howl"**

It was two months since the last Moonlight Howl. This one was so much different from last month's Moonlight Howl. First, there was only a sixteenth of the normal amount of wolves that took part in this monthly "party" of wolves. Normally, there was a minimum of two-hundred fifty wolves and a maximum of three hundred wolves in attendance, but now there had been anywhere from sixteen to forty-eight wolves in attendance as of now, on this mountain. Every one of those wolves had been or was at the top of The Howling Rock, regardless of their rank, not that it would have mattered anyway. There were hardly any wolves here because the majority of the wolves who would normally attend were afraid to be here not just because of the three missing Betas, alone. The massacre Claws discovered in the canyon where caribou lived was another reason.

Many of the mates of the wolves who were in attendance were among those who had chose not to come, so they were howling, or dancing, with whoever they could find and get accepted by. Only two wolves had their mates with them, out of the thirty-two wolves who were here now. When it came to wolves who were Kate's relatives in some way, Liam was the only one here. Liam was the older mate of Magril, who was the little sister of Fleet. Fleet was the orphaned mate of Claudette, the daughter of Kate and Humphrey. Even the braver relatives of Kate, like Princess, were too afraid of the rumors to be here.

The thirty-two wolves here could all agree with this unspoken statement: this Moonlight Howl was the most boring one they had ever been to. It was not because very few of them had their mates to howl with alone but also because of the fact that there were so few wolves to talk to, in comparison to normal numbers. Moreover, just because of some rumors about the rogues killing Jasper wolves was spreading through Jasper like wild fire. Kate and Humphrey claimed to have "good reason' for suspecting the rogues from Banff were responsible, but they had not yet explained why. At least not to anyone outside of her family; then again, Magril and Liam did not even know why Kate and Humphrey suspected the rogues, and they were family. For that reason, Liam doubted there was any evidence to support this, but, still, it seemed that everyone believed it. The few wolves that were here, even, seemed concerned about something bad that could happen.

Well, at least four of them were having some fun that the other twenty-eight wolves could not have without cheating on their mates. A she-wolf whose name was Jennifer and her mate were crying with pleasure as she rode him. The other female, Lani, who was already pregnant, therefore not wanting to mate again, was blowing her mate instead. It would not be so awkward for the rest of the wolves here if Lani and Jennifer were not doing what they were where _everyone_ could see and hear it all.

Lani was the wolf Candy had been walking to The Howling Rock with two months ago. Candy had confused Lani for Sweets when she said, "Silly Omegas! All they want us for is sex! But we're too good for them, right Sweets?" Lani was the twin cousin of Sweets, and Candy had confused her for her late best friend. It was easy to understand Candy's confusion. Candy was still hurting over Sweet's death, even a full year after she died. That was why Lani had humored Candy two months ago. Nevertheless, how long could Candy be like this? How long would it take Candy to get back to her normal patterns of thinking and acting? Well, get back to normal, as much as she could get after witnessing the death of her oldest friend, anyway.

Lani still missed her little cousin, whom she resembled in every way except for minor details such as eyelash length, that no one would pay attention to, but she was not acting like Candy about her cousin's death now. She had a year ago, but not now. Knowing that Claws tore her cousin's murderer apart just after Sweets's murder did make her feel a little better, though, but not by a whole lot. However, nothing could make Candy and Lani forget that Sweets was dead; nothing could bring her back to life, either. Sweets was one of the few Jasper wolves who died, killed by the rogues, during or before that final, bloody battle. The only wolves who died before the final battle with the rogues were Nars and Ed, two Northern wolves. Runt, Stinky, Garth, Claws, and Scar had been among the wounded after the battle was over. Runt lost an eyeball to King and Queen, the long-dead Alpha male and Alpha female of Banff, when he and Princess were slaves in Banff. The other three—Stinky, Garth, and Scar—were all wolves who were wounded when they had assisted seven other wolves in protecting Claws, Reba and Janice during the final battle with the rogues.

Amber was howling with Liam even though she was not married to him; Magril was his mate. Amber's mate, whose name was Candu, was a Beta wolf of the Western Pack. Amber was an Omega, also from the Western Pack. Amber was not pregnant with the younger of hate mate. She only courted Candu recently; they had agreed to wait until next year's mating season to start a family. They would know each other better by then.

The wolves who were howling with each other tried to ignore the screams of pleasure as Jennifer's mate impregnated her, and Lani received a mouthful of her mate's fluids. Jennifer collapsed on her mate; they were both breathing heavily. Lani's mate, too, was breathing heavily as she released his organ from her muzzle. No one said anything about what Lani and Jennifer had the guts to do in view of so many wolves they knew. Lani's actions were nothing like the actions of her younger cousin, Sweets. However, that was not to say that Sweets had never sucked off Salty; she just never did it in public or in a place where someone would catch her in the act. Sweets had more "standards," for lack of a better term, than her cousin and Candy. Sweets never did anything like that to herself or Salty when others could see it all. She always used to do such things in the privacy of her cave, or in one of the many box canyons around The Howling Rock. Nevertheless, even then, such acts from Sweets were rare.

The only time Sweets ever did something sexual in front of someone else was when Candy sucking off Mooch in front of her and Salty had provoked to her to. Sweets had pinned Salty to the ground by setting on his chest, her butt literally in his face. She did the same thing to him that Candy had been doing to Mooch at the time. However, Sweets _never_ did something like that again for the remainder of her life, cut short so suddenly three months later.

Liam and Amber were tired of howling with each other, not that they did not like each other. They just wished that Magril and Candy were brave enough to come to The Howling Rock with them.

Amber knew Magril well because of last year's Great Wolf Games, which she had also competed in. "So how is your mate doing?" she asked.

"Good," said Liam. "Magril is pregnant."

"Congratulations!" gasped Amber.

"Thank you."

Amber noticed how glum her friend sounded. "Is something wrong, Liam? You seem to be shaking a lot."

"It's just-"

"Let me at that!" a female cried. She sounded like she was overly drunk on fermented berries. It was remarkable she could even speak in such an audible tone. "Give me your dick so I can SUCK IT!" She then started to do it to a wolf that had no mate, after shouting it at him. She loved him, even they she did not know his name, as soon as she said she would.

"Is that...Claws?" whispered Amber. She sounded shocked.

"No," said Liam. "That's Claws's daughter, from her first litter. Claws is marred to Scar, that is their daughter, so she would not cheat on him."

"Claws would die if she saw what Bridget was doing, and if she heard what her daughter said." Amber changed to subject as they turned their back on Bridget and that other wolf. It was obvious that Bridge had too many fermented berries in her last meal.

"What were you going to say before Bridget interrupted you?"

"It's just that I feel bad for leaving Magril alone, especially since she is my mate, and she is pregnant. I wish I wasn't here..."

"I'm sure Claudette and Fleet are taking good care of her. They are her brother and sister-in-law, after all."

Something interrupted Liam again, this time by the moans of a male wolf. It was the one who Bridge made advances on. To be brief, she just got a muzzle full. In addition, it was not something that Bridge enjoyed the taste of; it was _too_ salty for her liking, and too thick. She could not even swallow it and spit it all over the ground. Bridge was gagging and complaining about how much worse it was to what she had been expecting it to taste like.

"If you want to go back to your mate, Liam, you can," said Amber, "and I'll go with you. We won't be missing any excitement here."

"Thank-"

A scream came from down the trail. The wolves knew by its intensity that it had nothing to do with sexual acts; it sounded more as if someone just died a terrible death. A she-wolf came running up the hillside. She was soaked from her nose to her neck in fresh blood. It was dripping off her body. "Wolves killed by brother!" she screamed. "They tore him to pieces and then they ate his remains! They're bodies are chewed to the bone on so many parts of their body. They are rotting like something dead!"

No one could say anything before there were more screams of agony. Everyone spun around to thirty wolves matching her description tearing Bridge and that other wolf to pieces. The other seven moved quickly, it seemed. Liam, Jennifer, Lani and those she-wolves' mates all shared the same fate. Amber and the bloody wolf escaped, but not before suffering bites. Amber suffered a bite to the shoulder and the other wolf to the neck.

The blood wolf, whose name was Julia, panicked because of her bite to the neck, and the slaughter going on. Julia swerved in a bad direction; she screamed as she accidentally went off a cliff. She died from a sharp rock pillar that she landed. It impaled her through the back, and stabbed through the other side.

Amber did not run very far before she realized how many of these rotting and mutilated wolves had joined the ones already here. In addition, more of them were shambling up the hillside. Amber also now many wolves were dead or wounded. So many wolves she knew, torn to shreds or eaten alive. Many of the wolves who had bites from the other wolves now died the same way when they panicked and tried to run through the crowd. Others died because the wolves cornered them and they could not escape.

Amber was the only surviving wolf of the once thirty-two wolves now, as she cowered between two boulders. These boulders were not close enough together to prevent what looked like zombie wolves from reaching her. Amber closed her eyes, hoping it would make everything go away, thinking it was just some bad dream or she was just seeing things. Amber reopened her eyes to see three sets of jaws coming at her.

She screamed and then everything went black for her.


	9. The Slaughter Discovered

**Chapter 8**

**The Slaughter Discovered**

"Wake up, Magril."

Fleet was nudging the cheek of his little sister with his nose. Now, not only was Claudette the only other wolf in the cave with Magril and Fleet. Princess, Runt, Stinky and Mica had joined them.

Lying on her back, Magril was looking up at these wolves with a sleepy look on her face. "What is it?" she asked.

"There is some concerning news you need to know," Princess said carefully. "There were thirty-two wolves who went to last night's Moonlight howl, including your mate, Liam. No one has seen them since they left—none of them returned to their caves when it was over. And Liam isn't here."

Magril looked down at her belly and started to cry. "I told him not to go there because of the potential danger!" she wailed. "What if something bad happened to him? What will happen if something bad happened to all of them? Who else was there?"

Stinky took over. "Lani, Jennifer, Amber, Bridget, and Julia went, and so did the mates of Lani and Jennifer. I do not know about the other twenty-four. I only spoke with Liam and the other wolves I mentioned by name. I told them to reconsider going to last night's Moonlight Howl, but they all went anyway."

"They should have listened!" Magril wailed again.

"What are we going to do, dear?" Runt asked Princess.

"We'll have to consult Kate and Humphrey," said Princess. "I know what you're thinking, Magril, but we are just seven wolves. If the Banff rogues are responsible for all these deaths and disappearances—we do not really know—it is not wise to go out there as a team of just seven wolves. Moreover, not all of us have the training for such combat. We need to go with more Alphas and Betas. And you two, Magril and Mica, will stay here with my parent-in-laws..."

"...if Kate and Humphrey decide to come with you," said Mica, "then who will we stay with?"

"Lilly and Garth," said Claudette. "They have not slept in their normal home—the tall grassy field—ever since Claws and those two young wolves came across those dead wolves."

* * *

Princess succeeded in obtaining permission from Kate and Humphrey to go to The Howling Rock to investigate. She was leading the wolves she spoke with, minus Magril and Mica, and a team of reinforcements—thirty extra wolves—to that mountain. Among those reinforcements were Kate, Humphrey, Claudette, Stinky, Runt, Princess, Melissa, Claws, Scar, Hutch, and Candu.

Princess had them all briefed about the ongoing situation by the time they reached The Howling Rock. Nevertheless, nothing could prepare any of them for what they found.

All over the mountaintop were the severed body parts and the mutilated corpses of thirty-two wolves. Heads, legs, tails, and chunks of flesh, bone, and internal organs made up the gory mess.

The heads of Lani, Jennifer, Bridget, and Julia identified the first victims. Claws and Scar were wailing over the only recognizable remains of their oldest daughter from their first litter, Bridget, when Claudette and Fleet found the skull of Liam. They knew it was Liam because of the condition of his skull. The zombie wolves had only half ate it. His head, yet attached to his revealed spinal column, was the only part left intact. The rest of his body was scattered about this rock like soup. It was a soup of gore. Other wolves seemed to be the consumers of all these deceased wolves. That was a detail supported by not just the speculation that the rogues could be responsible for all these murders, but also because of the recognizable bite marks inflicted on the bodies of the victims. In addition, the Jasper wolves had not forgotten that Reba and Janice were still missing.

"Oh no," gasped Hutch.

Candu would have asked "What?" if he had not seen it first.

"Kate," called Hutch. "I found...found Am-Amber." His voice was quavering.

Hutch and Candu were vomiting when the others came over. Well, it seemed to be all of them.

"And I found what little is left of Janice just around the bend," said Stinky. "I think we should get out of here...no one is alive here but us..."

"We may not be alive if we stick around too long," retched Princess. "I don't know how we'll break this news to Magril and the other relatives...of the deceased. Magril, especially, will take this news badly..."

* * *

"NO!" Magril screamed as soon as Fleet let carefully informed her that everyone who had gone to The Howling Rock last night was dead. That included Liam.

Fleet and Claudette failed miserably at consoling Magril as the other wolves speak with each other, in tears, their voices tainted with fear.

"I don't know what to do anyone!" screamed Kate. "Tell everyone to stay in their caves all night long and to never travel alone! Not traveling alone did very good to the wolves at The Howling Rock!" she added with a sarcastic bite in her voice. They're all dead!"


	10. That's Not the Wind Blowing

**Chapter 9**

**"That's **_**not**_** the wind blowing..."**

Kate was resting, not sleeping, with her tail over her eyes. She could not get to sleep, even though it was now dark, after what they discovered at The Howling Rock. Claudette and Stinky were sleeping at their mother's sides; Princess, Humphrey, and Runt were behind her. Lilly, Garth and Mica were in front of her. The rest of Kate's family was sleeping at the back of the cave; Fleet with Magril; Winston and Tony with Eve and the puppies from Princess and Runt's first litter.

Although not the same one from a year ago, Runt was still wearing an eye patch made from leaves to hide where his right eye had been before King took it. It was no longer an empty socket, though; a patch of flesh grew over it sometime ago. The eye patch Runt now wore, better made than the one he wore in Banff, was one that Reba and Janice had spent two days designing from a single, large leaf and multiple vines. It was over a year old, now, and was still in the same condition as it was back then. Runt recalled how the vegetarians had mentioned that they treated it with some sort of organic concoction they had mixed to preserve the eye patch. Janice had claimed that "Runt would be dead and rotted to the bone before his eye patch would start to rot; this persevering agent we made is that good." He thought that was a dark way to put it, but Runt knew what they had meant.

Princess and Runt was now a happily married couple that had one litter of puppies, with a second on the way, but they still had all their scars inflicted on them during their time in Banff. Both the physical ones inflicted by the rogues themselves, in addition to the psychological ones left behind because of the rogues' actions. "Hell" was the best way o describe how bad the lives they had lived in Banff were. First, they had been slaves in Banff, and received no food for that reason. Well, it would be more accurate to say they had received just enough food to prevent them from starving to death. Then they the rogues always threatened them, as a whole, with threats of beatings or death.

The rogues separately threatened them, but it was in a similar way. The males had threatened to rape Princess. "Preferably in the mouth," to quote the rogues wolves who had said it. The female rogues, on the other hand, had threatened to rape Runt by tying him to the stalagmites—long pointed piece of rock that rises up from the floor of a cave , formed by chemicals in water drops that have fallen from the roof over many years—and then individual ride him or suck him off. (The she-rogues claimed to love the take of male wolves' bodily fluids almost as much as they loved the taste of blood.) They never actually did, but they had issued threats to kill Princess and Runt if they refused to accept their advances if they ever wanted to mate or, in Runt's case, blow him. She-rogues, the ones from Banff, in particular, seemed to enjoy sexual activity in which they used their mouth on another wolf's sexual organs in order to give him pleasure more than their mates did. The honey-like consistency and the saltiness of the bodily fluids seemed to be the she-rogues' favorite part of the whole thing. In addition, the she-rogues had not seemed offended when Princess had called them "the biggest whores she'd ever seen in her life."

Nevertheless, it was a daily challenge for Princess and Runt to try to forget that all of this happened to them. Everything above was things actually said to Runt by the females, when they forced Runt to listen to their perverted conversations.

The rogues, the few of them who were still alive after the Battle for Jasper, were sick in the mind. They relied on brutality to have things their way, even if that meant resorting to actions considered to crimes among wolves—such as murder, which seemed to be their preferred course of action. In Banff, where it seemed to be an endless period of famine, the rogues consumed the corpses of the deceased [wolves]. The rogues were cannibals—something that eats other members of its own species. Cannibalism was not unheard of in Banff; in fact, it was acceptable. Banff was the only national park in Canada that had a cannibalistic wolf pack.

Princess and Runt would never forget all the times the rogues threatened them with everything from gouging their eyes out to beatings to everything from murder to rape, and everything in between, including starvation and threats of cannibalization.

Princess's and Runt's escape from Banff would not be the end of their troubles. One of them many things that Princess still remembered a full year later was thinking that Runt was dead; those thoughts had gone on for so many days until they reunited because a chance encounter. With the help of Lilly and a former rogue called Melissa, King died the day after Queen, his mate, died. Princess gave birth to her's and Runt's first litter of puppies the spring after her parents' deaths. The oldest one, a female, received a name that honors her mother. Her name, "Terra," was the King gave Princess before he took some wolves to Banff to create a new pack. Just when the jasper wolves thought they would have no more trouble with the rogues, it seemed to be happening again. Furthermore, it was worse than before: forty-two wolves were dead and one wolf was missing in just a month.

The two daughters and the son of Princess and Runt had been whimpering due to unknown reasons for some time. Now, Terra suddenly began crying about something that she sensed was dangerous being outside their cave. The scent of blood and rotting flesh was potent. Then there were the sounds of shambling footsteps and...

"I hear moaning," gasped Lilly. "It's not the wind blowing..."

"I'll go check it out," whispered Princess.

"Be careful," cautioned Garth. "You don't even know what's out there..."

Princess looked outside the cave, just peaking out enough to see what was going on. She screamed when a mutilated wolf landed on its belly in front of her. It started crawling toward her. This wolf was still alive, despite having a back that was obviously broken.

"MOMMY!" screamed Terra. Everything went dark for her, as she covered her eyes with her paws. She heard her mother screaming, then the sound of flesh tearing and bones breaking.

"Kill it! Kill it!" Terra heard someone scream as she heard those gruesome. It sounded like the voice of Mica, maybe Eve or Magril, even. Her little sister and little brother were screaming their mother's name.

Then Runt screamed "PRINCESS! NO!" and that was the end of the commotion. Except for the crying of the three puppies, all was silent. Terra and her siblings feared that something terrible had happened to their mother. They were too horrified to uncover their eyes to look.

* * *

Not to say that the puppies knew it, but when the chaos was over, the wolf with a broken back was dead. They feared that it was their mother's flesh they had heard tearing and her bones they had heard breaking, but it was not Princess. In fact, Princess had been fortunate enough to get suffer a single injury, not even a scratch, in the fight. Everyone was that fortunate.

"Did the rogues do this?" was the only spoke words after this frightening incident. Winston said this.

No one knew how to explain what happened. No one could even speak—the wolves were all horrified and sickened by the condition of these now dead wolf. They did know it just died a second time. This would be the last time, with its skull crushed in, and the brains leaking out. The puppies knew their mother was okay because not only they uncovered their eyes—thankfully, because the corpse of this wolf was not something wolves as young as they were should see when everything they heard had already frightened them more than enough. They knew their mother was okay because Princess and Runt were trying to comfort their puppies, which were still letting out cries of terror.


	11. Reba's Last Day

**Chapter 10**

**Reba's Last Day**

"Oh...Janice!" the vegetarian Omega wailed. "JANICE! How could they take you from me? How could there be zombies? It's all just like in Kate's nightmare!"

Reba was screaming to herself as she rolled around, due to her psychological agony over Janice's death, which she witnessed, on a type of plateau in the Eastern Territory, where no wolves lived anymore, since the unity of the Eastern and Western packs so many years ago. This was Reba's first time ever going to the Eastern Territory, and now she was stuck on this plateau, mourning the death of her oldest friend. She had always wanted to see what the Eastern Territory was like, but not under these circumstances. The only good news was that she would be safe on this plateau simply because it was like an island over a canyon rather than a sea. No wolf like the ones who killed Janice could reach her; they did not seem to remember how to jump. A pillar might be a better term than a plateau, but Reba knew nothing about geography or rock formations.

Even if Reba was safe from what she considered zombies, here on this rock, she was not safe from starvation. Reba's supply of food just ran out after here, on the shaded side of a mountain that looked over here, for three days. Reba lived here now, but food could not grow on this rock. Reba did her scavenging in the area around her "home." She was extremely fortunate to have found such a safe place for stationary survival. That was what it would be—stationary survival—until she had enough energy recovered to run back to Jasper. There was a box canyon not far from here. It was just like the "garden" she had spent the day with Kate and Janice. It was literally just around the hillside from here. It had plenty of food for Reba to survive for months, and it was all veggies, fruits and so on that she loved. However, Reba could not stay here for months; she needed to warn her pack about the real danger—not the rogues, at least not in their living form, but their undead form. Nevertheless, who on Earth would believe a "veggie whore," as Claws once called her? Maybe not having Janice with her, other than the blood all over her face, would convince them? Maybe...

Reba was using a bad she found on a human corpse, that the zombie wolves had consumed down to the bone, to carry gathered food back to her home. Judging by the shredded clothes still on the skeleton, Reba could only assume he or she had once been one of the park rangers. She remembered there being a gun not far from the body. Luckily, the bag she found was what humans called a "backpack." It could hold a lot before Reba had to drop off the load of...whatever she chose to carry. Now, that would be mostly loads of food—fruit, vegetables, roots, nuts and plants in general. Reba was not fussy about what she took to eat and what she did not take. Reba forgot about flavor—not that she hated the flavor of any plant, nut, or root—and just took anything that was not potentially toxic. She never took mushrooms—Reba could not afford to waste time sorting the toxic mushrooms from the non-toxic mushrooms. It did not really matter a whole lot, anyway—mushrooms were not very nutritious, even for a vegetarian. They were not worth taking.

Reba was lucky to be alive. When Janice died, she had been afraid that those zombies had bitten or scratched her. Although Reba had thought zombies only existed in campfire horror stories until now, she knew that if a zombie wounded her, it guaranteed a fate worse than death—she would become one. Reba knew that because of those same horror stories that had captivated her as an adolescent, and even as a puppy. Reba was braver than most other puppies of her generation; those horror stories never scared her then. The scratches on her body were, thankfully, because of those thorn bushes she ran by in that forest she had traversed, and not the zombie wolves. She would rather pick thorns out of her side than having to sever her own foot with that knife in her backpack because of a zombie bite or scratch.

Reba returned to and left her isolated home twenty-five times before she was content with all the food she had gathered. For just one vegetarian wolf, this was enough food for over a month's time without having to go and gather more. When she needed to rid her body of waste, Reba did not leave this platform. She just did her business off the ledge. As for water, there was a fresh, clean stream less than six inches from the platform. Reba wound never be at risk of the zombies wounding or killing and consuming her, considering how slow they shambled. Their pace reminded Reba of those snails she and Janice have...er...had as pets. They were just Reba's now.

_Only snails don't try and eat you_, she thought, and then sorted her freshly gathered food based on what it was. She had decent sized piles of twenty-eight different kinds of fruit, plants, vegetables, roots, and nuts. Obviously, she had more fruit, vegetables, and nuts than roots and general plants. She began to suspect that this was once a garden grown by humans, who moved on without gathering up whatever food or seeds there were. Maybe the zombies killed them.

_Unlikely_, thought Reba. There were no signs of a struggle. No remains of humans like the park ranger she found on the day she found this backpack. She always took that backpack with her, not knowing what she would find that could be useful. Whether it was something that could be a used as weapon, food, or just keep her warm. That was how she had been able to bring that heavy blanket and rain poncho back here; they had been the property of a hiker who met a bloody end like that park ranger. The rain poncho was massive, and she used it to keep the rain off items like the blanket, and to keep herself drying during the rain, as well.

Well, back to the fruit. Reba suspected what she had because of all the tropical fruit that grew in that "garden." It must have adjusted to the climate, meaning that it was a slightly different strain of tropical fruit than what grew in places like Florida and Hawaii, not Canada. Nevertheless, Reba was not complaining. These tropical foods were healthier for her than anything that naturally grew in Canada, and they tasted better than any domestic fruits and vegetables Reba ever eaten. They were so sweet that she could not avoid eating at least one every time she got hungry.

From left-to-right, in a circular shape around Reba, there were mounds of blueberries, strawberries, oranges, apples, cranberries, carrots, onions, peppers, tomatoes, crabapples, fermented berries of various kinds, ginger and sassafras roots, parsley, cherries, grapes, lemons, lines, pineapples, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, barley, wheat, oats, acorns, walnuts and chestnuts. There was no meat here, unless she counted the meat inside the acorns, walnuts and chestnuts, and herself, of course, but it was all a wolf needed to survive indefinitely.

The fruit and the vegetables would give her sugar—energy—and keep her healthy because of the natural vitamins in the juice, and in the pulp. The roots and the grains would give Reba all the carbohydrates, fiver, fats, vitamin, and minerals—that did not come from the fruit and vegetables—she would need to survive. Lastly, the nuts gave her protein, fats, carbohydrates, sodium, and fiber. It was all she would need to survive if something bad happed to her that would prevent her from leaving, such as being wounded lightly—a scratch, illness, and so on—or just having to see alive and, more importantly, healthy indefinitely.

Reba ate what she needed from each of the piles and nothing more. She needed to ration her supplies but eating the minimum amount of what she needed to stay hungry for a few hours. To regain some of her energy she had lost gathering this food, she went through a short nap. The first thing she did upon waking up was killing a deadly spider known as the brown recluse. If the spider had bitten her, within a relatively short about of time, the flesh would have melted as if splashed by acid. Without treatment, a limb could be lost, and even death could result from a brown recluse bite. Reba was normally the kind of wolf who always protested the killing of any animal, but something that was as deadly and as fast as a brown recluse spider would not survive around her. She would not allow it. No amount of rest or consumption of organic food could remedy a brown recluse bite. Only Candy and Eve knew enough about healing to deal with such a bite. However, Reba was miles and days away from any help and she knew nothing at all about healing and medicine. She would be too sick to move on before reaching the Western Territory if that spider had bitten her.

* * *

Reba lost her life to the zombies a week later when she went dangerously far from the safety of her isolated home. She left not to get food, water or anything at all, but to return to the Western Territory of Jasper. She was tired of being isolated from everyone she knew. In the pack back taken from that human skeleton was all of the food it could hold. She knew it would take a day-and-a-half or two days to return to her real home.

Things did not go according to plan almost as soon as she was out of the mountainous region of the Eastern Territory. Reba set her eyes upon zombie wolves at the exact moment she set her eyes upon grass for the first time in a week and a half. It was her first time seeing either in a while.

It had ended up not just a foolish mistake made by Reba to sprint down a steep, grassy hillside but also a fatal one. Reba was screaming because of a broken leg (in addition to the zombies shambling down the hill) just because she had ended up somersaulting down the hill in an improper fashion. Her leg broke because it had collided with a small boulder. Her fruit and other snacks we all over the ground. The knife she had found in the backpack as stuck in her side; she was bleeding out.

It was horrifying for Reba to see how long it took the undead to reach where she was lying, screaming in agony. It was just ten minutes of her lying there as death approached her. Her pain was too bad for her to move beyond her tossing and turning.

The zombies tore Reba to pieces within a minute after the first of her pursuers reached the bottle of the hill. She let out one last scream as they tore her apart, until her life expired. Her head collapsed in a pool of blood as the undead tore her guts out of her.


	12. The Night of the Undead Wolves

**Chapter 11**

**The Night of the Undead Wolves**

"Wake up, Kate," said Princess.

"What is it?" Kate snapped. "I was sleeping!"

"More bad news, I'm afraid." Kate blinked and sat up. She apologized for her tone. "You sent us on a mission to find Reba, remember? Well, we went as far as The Eastern Territory before we did."

"Then let me see her," Kate pressed.

"You don't want to," said Princess.

"Well, why on Earth not, huh?"

"There's not much left of her." Kate gasped and buried her head under her paws. "She's dead, torn to pieces just like the wolves in the canyon and the wolves at The Howling Rock."

Kate felt sick. "Do...do you have any clue who or what killed her?"

"I picked up the scent of the rogues, but also wolves from our own pack, as well as from the Eastern, Northern, and Southern packs." Princess just remembered something. "When is the last time we have heard from a Northern or Southern wolf other than Fleet and Magril?"

"When they joined us for the last battle with King's wolves," whispered Kate.

"That's over a year ago!" gasped Claudette, who was lying on her back, resting her head on Fleet's back. She flipped herself over and stood up quickly.

"Have we ever stopped to consider if that wolf you, Princess, killed last night has something to do with this?" asked Garth. "Remember Kate's dream..."

"Don't remind me about that!" snapped Kate. "I was trying to not consider anything out of my dream—nightmare—as reality! However, so far, everything that has happened is just like in my nightmare. First, the three Betas vanished at The Howling Rock., and then Reba and Janice vanished. Hutch, Salty, Shakey, Mooch, Claws, and Scar were the next five wolves who died in my nightmare after Reba and Janice."

"It sounds more like a hellish premonition than a nightmare," said Princess. She was not afraid to use profanities when her puppies were not around. Princess's and Runt's puppies had been taken to the cave next door, which belonged to Candy, so the adults could speak without frightening them anymore than last night's events had. Terra and her two siblings were sleeping at Candy's belly, as Salty and Mooch watched over them.

"Hellish isn't the right word to describe my nightmare," Kate said sourly. "Try this: it was a fucking horror story brought to life!"

"Language, Kate," gasped Humphrey.

Kate shot a death glare at the wolf she loved so much. He backed off.

"What do you mean your nightmare was 'like a horror story brought to life'?" asked Melissa, who, being a wolf from Banff, would not know what Kate was referring.

"In Jasper, there are horror stories told around camp fires to frighten the generation of wolves that is below you when they become adolescents. Wolves have passed these stories down through the generations, from grandparents, to parents, to children, to grandchildren and so on. Specifically, I have been thinking about one story in particular since having my nightmare."  
" What is it?" the former rogue pressed.

"It is about zombie wolves that supposedly had been in what is called the Saw-Tooth cave, and how they killed almost every wolf in Jasper Park years ago, after a two-and-a-half year period of pure hell. The humans' actions killed the majority of the survivors when they finally decided to do something about the outbreak, in addition to all of the zombie wolves. The humans' bombs killed all but one male wolf and one she-wolf, which considered it a 'cleansing' of the park to rid it of the "unclean" wolves. The wolves that had done things wrong during their lives; except for the puppies. They were just unfortunate enough to have no chance at survival. There have been two things speculated about this story as long as it's been told around fires—first, that it took place ninety-four years ago, and isn't just something someone made up to scare the younger wolves. Second, that those two survivors are distance ancestors of mine."

Melissa's eyes grew large. This was the most shocking thing she ever heard. It was just a short summary, but she was still horrified that such a thing could have happened before. In Banff, there were no horror stories told beyond the life stories told by good wolves and slaves who King had once forced to live in that in that hellhole. She had not even heard of zombies until Kate first told her family, and Melissa, about her nightmare. Melissa had no further questions or statements.

Kate sighed. "Could you all go to Candy's cave for a while? I just want to be alone—not in the literal sense—for a while." She stopped Humphrey. "Except for you, dear; I want you to stay here. I don't want to be all alone with what is going on."

They all went next door to Candy's cave, except for Kate and Humphrey.

"Did you want to talk about something you didn't want the others to hear?" asked Humphrey. "I can tell you still want to get something off your chest. And it has nothing to do with you being pregnant again, does it?"

"No, dear, it doesn't." Kate sat down, and so did Humphrey just because she did. "I feel so ignorant for withholding this information until now."

Humphrey felt like his heart sank down to his stomach.

"Maybe no one would be dead if it wasn't for my ignorance. I cannot live with myself for what I did—rather, rather _did not _do! I saw zombie wolves at the Howling Rock, and instead of saying something so they others could see them; I let you mate with me again instead! I let myself being in heat get the better of my common sense! What would the friends and the families of the deceased think if they found out their relatives could be dead because I am a slut! I wish we never mated that day, Humphrey! I just known I has caused the deaths of more than forty wolves! Magril, our daughter-in-law, is a widow because I was in heat!"

"Kate, you couldn't really have known-"

"Lies! I am just a stupid, slutty wolf who so many other wolves are dead because of her—my—actions! Obviously I can get more things done when I'm mating or when I'm putting things in my muzzle that DON'T EVEN BELONG THERE!"

"You being in heat has nothing to do with it. I saw them too, and I did not even realize that they could be zombie wolves. I saw no injuries on them. Did you?" he asked.

"No..." Kate whimpered. She was crying large tears. "...they looked like normal wolves. I know different now...I am so sorry for my outburst, Humphrey. I never should have said any of those things about myself—you made me realize how wrong I am..."

* * *

Candy licked the puppies of Princess and Runt across the tops of their heads with her tongue. She was gentle about it. Princess and Runt were on both sides of Candy and their weeping puppies, trying to comfort them as much as Candy was.

They, the puppies and the adults, had hear Kate's ranting screams, but thankfully the puppies, at least, hadn't been able to understand their grandmother's words. It was Kate's screams causing the puppies to start crying; her words would have only made it all so much worse.

Candy gasped, "I've never heard Kate scream like that before, or say anything like that." Candy changed the subject; she was more worried about the puppies now, since Kate stopped screaming. "Calm, young'uns," she said in a soothing voice. "I understand your concern, but there is no reason to cry."

"But...why was our grandmother screaming like that?" asked Terra. "S-she sounds upset..."

"She hasn't screamed for a while," said Runt. "I'm sure she's calmed down. You should go back to sleep, kids. Candy?" Runt looked at the yellow she-wolf. He wrapped his tail around his body to show Candy what he wanted her to do. Runt felt like that was the best way to tell Candy to wrap her tail around his son and daughters. She did it, and her bushy tail seemed to have a calming effect on them. They were sleeping again a few minutes later.

The adults began speaking in low voices to avoid waking the puppies.

"Kate's mention of that zombie wolf horror story worries me, now that this is going on," said Tony. "What if that story is actually real, and not fictional?"

"What if Kate happened to have been at one of the telling of that campfire horror story?" asked Garth.

"Do you know if Kate went to one before she had her nightmare?" Lilly looked at Candy.

Candy blinked. "Yes," she said. "I remember her being there..." It was hard to believe that she could remember anything from that night because she had slept through the telling of most of the stories. Maybe she had happened to wake up when Kate arrived and no one noticed she had. "I remember it all, despite being asleep most of the time. I woke up because I heard Kate talking, and I heard something about zombies. Well, let's just say, it had my attention, unlike the other stories."

"What else do you remember?" asked Stinky.

"After the conclusion of that zombie wolf story," she continued, "Kate seemed to have been shaken by that story worse than everyone else who was there, even the youngest wolves. It was as if that story had done something to Kate to re-awaken memories—bad ones. She had gone home shaking she was cold or something."

"Thank you for your good memory," Claudette sighed glumly. "At least we know a possible cause of my mother's nightmare. If only we could be given a solid answer to who or what killed forty or more wolves."

"And what about that mutilated wolf who tried to kill Princess?" asked Runt.

"I don't know, honestly," his older sister sighed. "It looked like a zombie, acted like a zombie, sounded like a zombie, and smelled like a zombie. Unless that wolf lost a fight with a grizzly bear, and his body was rotting even though he was a live, he had to have been a zombie."

"I don't know if this really matters now," Princess interrupted, "but I examined the body of that wolf the morning after he almost killed me. He was a rogue from Banff."

* * *

"Ohhh...Kate," Humphrey moaned as she thrusted her head up and down between his legs. His entire reproductive organ was stuck in Kate's muzzle; she had her larger-than-normal tongue wrapped around it. It was not just something that increased the pleasure of her actions, but having a she-wolf's tongue wrapped around her mate's organ also protected it from her teeth. All while not damaging Kate's tongue, surprisingly. Humphrey was hard thanks to a brief lick down Kate gave him before putting it in her muzzle. It was all wet with Kate's saliva.

Although both Kate and Humphrey knew e was far from his climax, Kate could taste a more watery fluid dripping down her throat. It tasted like salt water with most of the salt removed from it. Kate could feel Humphrey against the sides of her tongue and the start of her throat. Kate would not be able to get this organ any deep in her throat. This forced her to breathe through her nose as a result; breathing through her mouth was not an option when she had something stuck in it. Humphrey's organ tasted like raw meat and blood to Kate. That was a taste she loved as much as the fluids that she was anxiously waiting to flood her mouth.

Kate felt like the load that would fill her muzzle eventually was a reward that made doing this worth it. The process had the informal name "blow_job_" for a reason; it was difficult on the mate to receive one, despite the pleasure the process gave him. Moreover, nothing felt better than when the mate climaxed, when Humphrey would blow his load down Kate's throat. That was Kate's favorite part of the whole process. This would be the fourth time receiving one from Kate. The first two times, Kate swallowed. To Kate, his honey-like fluids—in terms of the thickness, not the taste, it was usually salty—was as salty as the caribou meat they loved so much. As for the third time, Kate had stopped sucking him off just before his climax. Instead, she licked the tip of his organ until he gave her a "facial" with his fluids. A "facial" was when a she-wolf let her mate climax all over her face instead of letting the fluids in her mouth.

Kate was constantly changing the speed at which her head thrusted. Sometimes she would thrust her head slowly, which gave her a chance to suck on it, despite having her tongue wrapped around it. Other times, the speed could vary from an average speed to a faster speed. No matter the speed which Kate thrusted her head, she drooled more and more all over Humphrey's organ. It would always poke her throat, something that made her gag. As she thrusted, Kate thought about how embarrassing it would be to vomit, because of her gag-reflexes, all over his organ before, or even when, he climaxed. It would be strange to get vomit all over it.

Humphrey felt that his climax was nearing, and he warned Kate in advance, through puffs of breath. Kate slowed down her thrusting, and tightened the squeeze her tongue had on the organ in her muzzle. It had felt great from the story, but Kate's latest action made this blowjob so much better. It was definitely the best one he ever received from Kate, but also the longest he ever lasted before reaching his climax.

"Oooh...Kate!" Humphrey screamed with pleasure as he filled Kate's mouth with his fluids.

Kate's eyes grew big. This was the best, the sweetest, the thickest load ever blown into her mouth. It was also the biggest mouthful Kate ever received from Humphrey climaxing in her mouth. Between Humphrey's organ and all of the thick fluid in her mouth, there was no room left for anyone else to be stuck in it. Some of it had immediately flowed down Kate's throat, as soon as Humphrey blew his load in her mouth. The rest of it was still in either her muzzle or flowing out the sides of it.

Kate, still with her head between his legs, and Humphrey smiled at each other. Looking down at her, Humphrey saw the white coating all over the lips of his mate's muzzle, and on the ground beneath her chin. Kate gulped a few times as she swallowed the thick mouthful; she felt it splash when it reached her stomach.

Kate ran her tongue across her muzzle to remove the coating of fluids from her muzzle. The last thing she did to Humphrey was to lick Humphrey all over his organ to get all of the leftover fluids. That all went to her stomach, too.

Kate sat up on her haunches as Humphrey lay down on his belly. Kate smiled down at him, taking note of the look of pure ecstasy on his face.

* * *

Two days later, Candu was alone at the border of the Eastern Territory and the Western Territory of Jasper Park, mourning his mate, Amber, who was among the thirty-two wolves who died at The Howling Rock not long ago.

Amber had been the love of his life since before they were even adolescents, and now she was gone. Amber had not been pregnant but she and Candu had just married each other only a week-and-a-half before her death. Th news of Amber's death had left Candu heartbroken, and he still was heartbroken about it. He did not want anyone to be with him now. Candu even felt like he had no reason to continue living. He had no family left. His parents passed away two months ago, his brothers and sisters were among the forty or more wolves that died in the past few months. Now, his mate was dead, too. His friends did not know it, but Candu was considering ending his own life so he could see Amber again. This was the secondary reason he had not wanted Claws, Scar and Hutch to follow him. They would stop him from killing himself, surely.

Nevertheless, this request would be the first, and the only one, his closest and oldest friends would not honor. They were extremely worried about Candu, fearing that he was contemplating suicide. Therefore, Claws and Hutch had followed him from a good distance away. They were just catching up with him now.

"I told you not to follow me!" barked Candu. "Doesn't anyone listen to me anymore? I want to be alone!"

"We don't want to lose you," cried Claws. "I don't know what Hutch is thinking, but I can sense you're thinking about killing yourself." She wiped away tears. It was odd to see Claws like this, Candu thought, but nothing would change that he wanted to be alone to mourn Amber.

"Who would miss me if I did?"

"We would!" cried Claws. "And so would everyone else back in the Western Territory! There are so many wolves who would miss you if you died."

"Well I miss Amber and he's dead!"

"Candu!" barked Hutch. "Listen to me. There is no reason for you to kill yourself over your mate's death. I would not kill myself if Melissa died, and Claws would not if Scar died. Now get away from the ledge," his voice softened, "I beg you, Candu. Just come over here, and go home with us."

"Alright," said Candu, seeming to approach Claws and Hutch. "I'll go home." Then he added, shockingly, "Not the home you want me to go to."

"CANDU!" screamed Claws, who Hutch held back, as Candu let himself fall, back first, off the cliffside. They closed their eyes when they heard the sound of bones breaking.

"Candu, don't do it!" Hutch gasped as they ran to the edge. Looking over, they saw the broken body of their friend. His back was broken, and his head was at an odd angle. Blood poured from behind his head, and somewhere else that shocked Claws and Hutch. It also explained why Candu took his own life.

"Look!" gasped Claws. "Look at his shoulder!"

"What?"

"Look at his shoulder! There's a bite on it!" Claws was frantically pointing at Candu's right shoulder with her right paw. Sure enough, Hutch saw a bite on their friend's shoulder when he looked at it. They both realized it was a bite inflicted by a wolf. That told them the _real_ reason Candu killed himself. They doubted it had to do with the death of his mate, Amber, even though he had been truly mourning her.

"That bite...it matches the bite of another wolf," gasped Claws. "Does that mean..."

"Yes, Claws," Hutch mournfully said, "it means that another wolf bit him. In addition, given Kate's dream, we know what kind of wolf bit him. It was an undead one."

"We have to get out of here, Hutch..."

* * *

"Kate." The Alpha female of the Eastern and Western Packs heard her name spoke by a sad, female voice. Kate spun around. Claws said it; Hutch was with her, by her side, with Princess, Scar and Melissa following close behind. "What's wrong?" Kate asked in a cautious voice.

"Candu..." Claws cried.

"What about Candu?"

"He killed himself," whispered Melissa, in a sad voice.

"What!" gasped Kate. "Why?"

Hutch took over. "Well, we—Claws and I—first assumed it was due to his grief over the death of Amber, his mate, until Claws saw a bite on Candu's shoulder that matched the teeth of a wolf."

"Are you saying that Candu was bitten by one of the...whatever is killing everyone?" Humphrey gasped as he came over.

"Yes," said Hutch. "I fear the worst for your family, Kate. So far, all of the deaths have taken place closer to the Eastern territory than the Western, but each incident has been closer to the Western territory each time."

"What are you proposing?"

"Evacuation," said Claws. "What else can we do? If there are zombies like in your dream, I don't see any other option but evacuation."

"But what about the elderly wolves like my grandparents and Tony?" asked Stinky. "Will they even survive a full-scale evacuation of the Western Territory? And where would we go?"

"We can only hope they'll survive. If they do die, any death would be better than death by zombie wolves," said Scar. "We'll evacuate to Red Deer Park, to the north of here. Since we have not heard from them in a while, we can only assume that something bad has happened in the Northern and the Southern territories."

"WINSTONNNNNN!" They heard Eve scream from the outside. "NO!" The wolves in the cave dashed outside to discover a nightmarish scene of death. Winston and Tony were wolves among the countless victims who the zombie wolves were tearing to shreds.

Eve, remarkably unharmed, was running away from the carnage with a few survivors—Magril, Mica, Garth and Fleet, none of whom had any injuries either. "What do we do, Kate?" Mica was screaming.

"All we can do is RUN FOR OUR LIVES!" Kate screamed. "Just run! We'll meet up together later, at The Howling Rock!"

"Are you crazy? The Howling Rock is a place of death!" shouted Claws.

"Yes, but it looks like all the zombies are here, not there, so just go!"

Then Humphrey added, "We'll just have to hope for the best!"


	13. Sometimes Survival Calls for Sacrifice

**Chapter 12**

**Sometimes Survival Calls for Sacrifice**

"Where is Hutch?" Melissa demanded in a shouting voice. She was on the verge of tears. Hutch, who was missing, as far as she knew, was her mate; his puppies were growing in her womb.

Not that Melissa was aware of this year, but her dear Hutch was not among the survivors of the zombie outbreak in the Western Territory of Jasper, which were few. There were only fourteen survivors out of the entire combined Western and Eastern packs. They were Kate, Humphrey, Princess, Lilly, Magril, Claudette, Runt, Stinky, Garth, Fleet, Claws, Scar, Eve, and Candy. As far as the survivors knew, everyone else was dead.

There was four witnessed to several wolves' brutal deaths. First, there was Eve, who had been talking to Winston and Tony when lookouts spotted the undead horde, and gave a warning about it. Eve was lucky to have escaped unharmed. Her mate, Winston, and their old friend, Tony, would still be believe if their hips had not gave out as they ran away. Eve was the only surviving witness to their deaths. She remembered seeing the zombie wolves tear Winston and Tony to shreds, when they were still alive. She just hoped they did not suffer for long.

The second witness was Candy. She witnessed not the zombies killing one or two wolves but killing six wolves, in two separate incidents. She was possibly the only survivor of the seven wolves who had been in the vicinity her cave when the undead poured in. Candy had actually been outside her cave, sunning herself on the stone ledge above it. She remembered hearing the puppies of Princess and Runt screaming in terror suddenly. Candy arrived to see the undead wolves tearing Salty, Shakey and Mooch—her mate—as they had been protecting Terra, her little sister and her little brother. Candy also remembered screaming at the puppies to get in the holes at the back of the cave. The puppies squeezed into those holes, screaming, the last time Candy saw them. She told them she would come back for them as soon as possible. Princess and Runt were aware of this.

The third and fourth witnesses were Mica and Magril. They saw the zombies tear Hutch to pieces. They would be dead if it was not for Hutch's sacrifice.

"I said 'Where is Hutch'?" barked Melissa. "I want an answer! Damn it, someone answer me!"

Mica carefully approached the former Banff rogue. She was in a posture of submission, with her head hanging low to the ground and her tail tucked between her legs, despite the fact they were both Alphas. There were only three reasons that a wolf would be submissive of another wolf: when a wolf was in trouble and before the Alpha male and Alpha female of a pack; when another, usually stronger wolf frightened a weaker wolf; lastly, when their elders, usually their parents or grandparents, punished younger wolves. However, the Alpha male and Alpha female of his or her pack, another wolf's parents, or grandparents could be who carried out the punishment.

It was obviously the second reason. Melissa was a stronger Alpha wolf than Mica; that was good enough reason for Melissa to scare her. Although she had renounced her allegiance to King and Queen over a year ago, and they were dead now, all Melissa knew was the ways of the rogues. Melissa had promised not to, but any wolf could revert to their roots, their natural instincts, without warning.

"Well?" Melissa's patience was growing thing. "TELL ME!" she roared.

"I don't want to be the one to break this news to you," Mica finally said, in a sad, shaking voice that provoked Melissa to cry. Her tears dripped onto Mica's head. She already knew what Mica was going to say. "Hutch sacrificed himself for Magril and me..."

Melissa did not react to this awful news at first. The best ways to describe the expression on her face were "stone faced" and "tragic." Melissa did nothing but stand there, motionless. How many wolves would become widows or widowers before this ended? She had lost count of the number of wolves who lost their husbands or their wives _before_ all head broke loose. In addition, she was now one of them.

"We should-" began Kate.

"NO!" Melissa screamed suddenly. "Hutch! Hutch! Hutch! No, no, no, not my dear Hutch! Hutch can't...can't...be...dead. No! No! No! You are lying to me! That is what it is! You are all lying to me! Tell me where he is, NOW!"

"Melissa," Princess said in a voice harsher than Mica had spoke to her with. "Hutch is dead. I know how much it hurts you to hear that, but no one is lying to you. He did give his life for Magril and Mica—at least he didn't die in vain."

Melissa sighed. "You're right," she said. "WE just need to worry about finding your's and Runt's puppies, now." She turned to face Candy. "When did you last see Terra and her siblings, Candy?"

"In my cave," said Candy, "just after I saw the zombies kill Salty, Shakey, and Mooch. I told them to hide in the holes at the back of my cave—they were safe in them when I had to retreat. I led all those zombies away from them, at least. The last thing I told them was to stay in those holes I, or someone else, returned for them."

"They've been stuck in those holes for a day!" yelped Runt. "We have to get them out of there. I won't leave my children to die if there is a good chanced they're still alive!"

"We're not that far from my cave," said Candy. "I'll get you there within an hour's time, trust me. I promised I would come back for them and I am going to live up to that promise. They know I will."

"I believe you," said Princess. "I know I can trust you—you saved my life twice. How can I not trust you?"

* * *

"There's Candy's cave," said Magril.

This cave next door to Kate and Humphrey's cave was not the cave Candy and Sweets originally lived in. Before their marriage to Salty and Mooch, they—Candy and Sweets—lived in a cave not far from the grassy field where Lilly and Garth moved after their own marriage.

"Help!" they heard a young voice scream. It was Terra, the oldest puppy, and oldest daughter, of Princess and Runt. Her parents' ears stuck straight up.

"I want our mommy and daddy!" Terra's little brother screamed.

"I hear them!" gasped Princess. "Mommy's coming, children! Just hold on!"

"So is your daddy!" shouted Runt.

"HELP! MOMMY! DADDY!" the three puppies screamed together. "MAKE IT GO AWAY!"

"Terra! We're coming!" cried Princess.

"Melissa!" Humphrey barked. "You and Claudette are faster than the rest of us. Get to that cave and save those puppies! We'll catch up."

"Yes, sir!" said Melissa. Claudette took off after Melissa for Candy's cave. It took only minutes for them to reach it. They disappeared into the cave.

"Aunty!" gasped Terra. All three of them were still hiding in those holes in the back wall of the cave. Furthermore, there were no zombies, at least not inside the cave, thankfully.

"You can come out now, young'uns," said Claudette. "There's no danger now."

"What about our parents?" Terra asked as they popped out of the holes.

"They're on their way, dear," whispered Melissa.

"Are you all that's left?" the brother cried.

"No," said Claudette. "My parents, Princess, Lilly, Magril, Runt, Stinky, Garth, Fleet, Claws, Scar, Eve, and Candy are still alive, but we're all that's left of our pack, I hate to say."

"No..." cried Terra. "Are you saying that some of our family died?"

Claudette started tearing up. "Yes, unfortunately. Winston and Tony, your great-grandfathers, did not make it, nor did Salty, Shakey, Mooch, Hutch, or Candu."

Terra looked up to something that made her a little happier. "Mommy! Daddy!" she yelped with joy.

"Oh, dear," gasped Princess, as she and Runt wiped away their children's tears.

"What are they crying?" asked Runt.

"They asked about who was still alive," said Melissa. "They know what happened to Winston, Tony, Salty, Shakey, Mooch, Hutch, and Candu. Well, not exactly, but they know they're dead now."

"Who told them?" Princess said. The anger in her voice was slight, but still noticeable.

Claudette and Melissa looked at each other nervously.

"I...I did..." whimpered Claudette, as she went into a full-out posture of submission—ears laid down, paws over her head, and her tail tucked between her legs. She was whimpering with fear, as if begging for mercy as Princess stood over her.

"Get up," Princess said. "I'm not that angry at you. We'd have to tell them sooner or later as to why Winston and Tony aren't with us."

Melissa interrupted. "I hate to interrupt, but I'm going to see what on Earth is taking the others so long."

"Alright, but be careful out there," said Princess. "You don't know if there are any zombies out there or not, still."

Melissa left the cave.

"What were you going to say, Claudette?"

"Still, it was wrong of me to tell them about all the deaths that happened without addressing you and Runt first."

"Don't worry about it," sighed Princess. "You always have good intentions. Now lets-"

A fur-raising scream—it did just that; the fur and hackles on Princess's and Claudette's backs, as well as the puppies' backs, were sticking up—emanated from outside this decent-sized cave.

"That was Melissa!" Claudette yelped.

The scream stopped as quickly as it began.

Princess, Runt and Claudette ran for the exit of the cave, the three puppies not far behind them. A grisly scene greeted them when they looked down the hillside.

"Oh no," Princess struggled to catch her breath.

Melissa's body lay motionless in a pool of blood and gore. The blood was gushing like a waterfall out of a gash in her neck. The corpse of a zombie, now dead, lay only six inches way. A good-sized rock was the item used to cave in its head.

"Look away, kids," Princess said as she gagged. "You don't need to see anymore than you already did." She lifted her head up away from them. "Claudette, stay up here with them. I don't want them to see anymore."

Princess skidded down the hillside, and ran over to where her old friend now laid dying, struggling to breath. Upon reaching the bloody scene, Princess realized that zombie had not only torn a hole in her throat but also Melissa's windpipe.

"What happened?" Princess screamed.

"It came out of the bushes..." Sadness and Grief chocked Stinky's words. "If it were not for Melissa, Candy would be dead. She got between the zombie and Candy just as it went for Candy's throat."

"What about the..." Princess stuttered. "...the injury?"

Eve stepped forward, her eyes trickling tears. "Melissa pulled back from the zombie...I don't need to say anymore..."

"Oh, Melissa," Princess wailed miserably. "You survived so much only to end up like this..."

There was a splash of blood from Melissa's mouth as her words sputtered out: "I'm...not...dead...yet..."

"MELISSA!"

"I...I...don't...have much...time left..." she coughed. " ...so let...me speak. You, Princess...are my...dearest...friend. I trusted...no one else...in Banff...when we...were young. I...I forgive you...for what...y-yo-you...d-di-did...t-to...my sister. I...love you all...goodbye..." One last breath escaped from Melissa's struggling jaws, and then she was gone. Her body went limp; her head collapsed in her own blood.

Princess threw herself down on the body of her oldest friend. As Runt and the others watched on in silent grief, tears flowed down the side of her face.

Princess was howling now; not how wolves howled, either. These were more like piercing cries. Princess whispered just five words into Melissa's ear: "I'll never forget you..."

She would never hear them.

* * *

**Author's note:** For those who have not read by version of "The Great Wolf Games," Melissa is one of two rogues who came to Jasper Park, and the only one who is still alive (Princess killed the male rogue who had come with Melissa). The truth was that she didn't want to be loyal to King anymore, and allied herself to the Western Pack. She hated the ways of King and his mate Queen as much as her old friend Princess. Although in Kate's nightmare in my first zombie story, it was said that Hutch loved Reba, he was already married to Melissa in reality.


	14. Graveyards are Safe?

**Chapter 13**

**"Graveyards are safe?"**

The now fourteen survivors left the Western Territory as soon they had Melissa buried where the undead would not get to her body. The one thing they had forgotten to do, however, was destroy her skull as they had done to the undead that killed her. One of the things they knew about the undead was because of Kate's nightmare. They knew that the only way to kill the undead was to destroy the brain. The only other thing they knew was that if an undead wounded them in anyway. Their grief had been so bad that they had not even thought about destroy Melissa's brain. It would be about twenty-four hours before Melissa reanimated—returned to life—as one of the undead.

As she carried one of her puppies on her back—her only son, whose name was Danny—Princess was still weeping. Melissa's death had been so sudden. One minute, she had been talking to her oldest friend, and the next, Melissa was dead. There was probably a trail of Princess's tears marking the path they had taken; that was how long she had been weeping. Melissa died about four hours ago and Princess was still shedding tears over her death. Runt was shocked to see his normally strong-willed mate acting in such a way. If this were how she acted over her oldest friend's death, how would Princess act if something bad happened to him? Alternatively, what would she do if something happened to one of their puppies? Would she act as Candu had when Claws and Hutch had confronted him, and contemplate suicide? Runt knew that if he and all of their puppies died that Princess would not want to go on living. She would end her own life even if she it by means of the undead. Secretly, Kate and Humphrey had made the same pact with each other shortly before the horde was at their front door, quite literally. It had been just after Kate blew Humphrey, after he recovered his composure, when they made that pact.

Their brief conversation had gone as followed:

_"Kate, if something happens to me," Humphrey had said to her then, "what will you do?"_

_ "I will die with you," she had said. "I wouldn't be able to go on living if you were gone, dear."_

_ "I would do the same for you," said Humphrey, "if something happened to you that wouldn't allow you to go on anymore. I couldn't imagine life without you."_

Then their conversation ended there. Kate and Humphrey would not discuss such a touchy subject again until such a time came, if it did. It was something they prayed would _never_ happen. What kind of sane wolf would think about killing him or herself; well, want to do it? Princess and Lilly could not imagine their lives if they lost Runt and Garth, just as Kate could not imagine her life if she lost Humphrey. Moreover, Princess and Runt, and Kate and Humphrey could not bear to think about the chance that one of their sons or daughters could die. Princess and Runt, especially, who were the only couple who had children this young with them. Their sons and daughter were so young; they had not had a chance to know what it is like to live their lives out yet.

All of the now fourteen survivors felt like they had so much more to look forward to in life, especially the females who were pregnant—Kate, Princess, Magril, Claudette, Claws, and Candy. Just thinking about the pregnant females made their mates feel even sadder about what happened to Melissa. She died pregnant. That saddened the wolves who were still alive because not only Melissa died but also the at least three puppies who had been growing in her womb. The dark reality was that four wolves actually died, not one wolf, and nothing they could not do anything to save Melissa's puppies. It made the males worry about their mates; they feared that their males would share the same fate; they would lose their puppies and their mates.

"Where do we go now?" asked Magril.

"You mean, where can we go?" Mica sarcastically corrected her.

"We'll go to the cemetery that is located not far from here," said Kate.

Everyone looked at her as if she was insane. "WHAT?" the group gasped in union.

"Since when are cemeteries safe?" gasped Garth. "Dead things belong in cemeteries!"

"You expect there to be any zombies there?" Kate went on. "I've never seen humans there, and my parents, even Tony, said that they don't remember seeing any humans. In fact, their _grandparents_ never saw any humans there. So if no living things have gone there, besides maybe a squirrel or a rat, there in decades, is there any reason for us to expect undead things to be there?"

"But if we are going to sleep out in the open, how will we be safe?" asked Lilly.

"We won't sleep outside, even if there was no risk to it at all. You all know about those stone buildings in the cemetery I'm referring to?" The other thirteen wolves nodded. "Good."

"What is your point, Kate?" Princess said sourly.

"We are going to rest up in that building for a few days before we move on."

"But where is there to go after that place that will be safe for us?" asked Stinky.

"We'll go to the gas station across the river," explained Kate, "just like in my nightmare. Lilly, Humphrey, mother and I will there in our nightmare, and we survived a while before we left to find Princess, Garth and you three—" She was referring to Claudette, Stinky and Stinky. "—since we have no reason to leave, we can stay there indefinitely until we can find a new park to live in."

"Just don't get behind the boarded-up door," cautioned Humphrey.

"Excuse me?" Magril cocked her head.

"In my nightmare, my mother...well you can tell them," she added, addressing Eve.

"Well, Kate told me that in her nightmare," said eve, "I opened up a barricaded door, and in that room was a zombie. It bit me, and I begged Kate to kill me until..."

"...I had no option but to stab my own mother in the head with a screwdriver so she wouldn't turn into a zombie," Kate completed her mother's sentence.

This shocked Princess, even. All of the wolves gasped.

"Damn..." Princess gasped.

She and Runt's puppies started whimpering.

"Mommy," cried Terra, "why did you curse?"

Princess barked, "Look, daughter, I didn't expect to learn that detail about your grandmother's nightmare. And I have every right to be angry when I just WITNESSED MY OLDEST FRIEND BLEED OUT!" she roared at her daughter. Terra screamed and ran for the first wolf she saw, who was Candy. Terra hid behind Candy's hind leg, whimpering.

Princess did not realize how she was acting, it seemed.

"How could you talk to your own daughter like that, Princess?" Claudette shouted. "She did nothing wrong."

Stinky approached Princess, too. "You shouldn't have even cursed in front of your daughter. You know how sensitive she is!"

Princess felt like her heart broke. She looked to the ground and tucked her tail between her legs. Princess was actually acting submissive to her own daughter. She lifted her head high enough only to make eye contact with her daughter.

"I am so sorry, Terra," she said to her daughter. "I need to learn how to control my temper. Losing a friend doesn't give me any right to scream at you like that."

"Let's get to the cemetery," Kate said, shocked by this interaction between Princess and her own daughter. _To think all that happened over the word "damn," _thought Kate. She shook her head with disbelief.

* * *

"This place gives me the creeps," said Eve. Eve could not raise her hackles any higher, if she wanted to, which she did not want to. She wanted her uneasy feeling to go away and not come back.

"Mommy, I'm cold..." Terra whimpered. She and her brothers, Danny and Sam, were walking along side Princess and Runt. It was starting to get dark out, and colder winds always came with the dark this time of year. It was autumn, getting closer to winter. There was already some snow on the ground.

Princess aid, "We're not that far from that building in the cemetery. Can you hold out until then, dear?"

"Maybe," whispered Terra, "but I don't know if my brothers can. They're so cold already."

"We'll take care of them," Claudette said as she stopped walking to allow Danny underneath her belly. Sam went underneath Mica. It was easy to keep up with these two she-wolves as they walked. It was warm underneath both Claudette and Mica. The amount of body heat these two she-wolves gave off was greater than the body heat their father because they were both pregnant. It also helped that the bodies of adult wolves effectively blocked these chilly winds. Claudette and Mica were wolves who were physically bigger than Kate and Humphrey—Claudette's parents, and Mica's parents, in addition to being pregnant with the puppies of Stinky and Fleet. The wind hardly affected them.

"Thank you, aunty," was what both of the sons of Princess and Runt said to Claudette and Mica. They were both the aunts of Danny and Sam. Claudette was their aunt because was the older sister of their father, while Mica was their aunt because she was the mate of their uncle Stinky. Stinky was the older brother of their father.

* * *

"There it is," Kate announced half an hour later. "There's the stone building I was referring to earlier."

The group of wolves dashed for the medium-sized, stone building, which humans called a tomb—not that wolves would know that—only to learn that the door was locked and bolted. Someone had barricaded the door from the inside, but the wolves were obviously not aware of that yet.

"Now what do we do?" Humphrey asked. "Are there any other ways to get into these kinds of buildings?"

"No," sighed Kate, "this is the only way to get in it."

"What do you suggest, then?" Garth asked. "Should we just move on? Or do we just wait a while and hope that someone is in there, and opens this door?"

"Not yet. We'll wait, but let me trying something first," Kate said.

Kate started pawing the steel door with her right paw. Kate had extended her knife-like claws. Her clawing of this door made a loud and unpleasant scratching sound. Kate, and no one else, thought she could hear someone—possibly a human—shouting from inside the tomb, which wolves just called "medium-sized stone buildings."

"Oh no," gaped Candy. She was shaking, like a few of the other wolves.

"Grand mommy!" screamed Danny.

"What is it?" Kate asked, still pawing the door. She did not know what was going on because her butt was in the direction everyone else was looking. She did not turn around to see what was going on, either. Kate was too busy concentrating on trying to get whoever was on the inside of this tomb to open the door. She heard whomever it was shouting, and, it sounded, throwing some large items around in there.

"Your plan had better work out, soon!" Princess shouted. "There is a pack of undead wolves shambling toward us!" Although the proper term was a "swam of undead wolves," these living wolves were accustomed to saying "a pack of wolves," whether referring to a pack of living wolves or a swarm of undead wolves.

"I hear someone in there-" Kate began, only to stop speaking when the heavy, metal door swung open, inward. She almost fell into the tomb, right into the human who opened it. Kate recognized this human as the hunter she and Lilly saw in her nightmare, when Kate and Lilly had been living in a notch on the side of a massive tree.

"Shoo! Go away, wolves!" had been what the hunter was going to say until he noticed the undead wolves shambling toward his hideout.

Instead, he said, "Get in here," to the wolves.

They all made it into this tomb except for one of them. No one noticed that one of the wolves was still outside the tomb until the hunter had locked, bolted, and barricaded the door again. The wolves began to panic. It was Sam, the youngest puppy of Princess and Runt's first litter of puppies, who the hunter had unintentionally locked out. He was pawing the door and crying.

Princess was screaming at the hunter, for him to open the door. Even though he only heard frantic barking and growling coming out of her mouth and not actual words. While these wolves could understand what humans said when they spoke, humans could not understand what wolves were saying when they spoke. It just sounded like snarls, growls, barking and other noises, which was why humans normally felt threatened by wolves because they normally only heard these threatening sounds, even when a wolf was sad or happy, rather than angry or protective of something.

Suddenly, the hunter realized why Princess and Runt, and some of the other wolves, were barking at him frantically, and not threateningly, as most wolves would have done in such a case. He was speculating that these wolves had somehow understood what he said when he told them to come into his holdout. The hunter still had no idea why he had done that, but he had. Maybe because he did not want to see or hear the undead wolves kill anyone, human or not. The hunter only saw two puppies in his holdout now. There had been three outside of the tomb. Immediately, he started removing the barricade again, but what he heard outside the tomb made him replaced it for a third time. The wolves heard the same sound, and understood why he replaced the barricade.

"SAM!" Princess and Runt screamed in unison. Their youngest puppy was no longer pawing at the door, wanting in to this tomb with his family. Sam was now mewling in agony, as a rabbit did when it was frightened or when something was harming it. Everyone could figure out what was happening without even having to witness it directly. The mewling had ceased within two minutes.

"Sam!" Princess was wailing. "Not Sam!"

"Oh no, Sam!" screamed Runt. "Not my son! Not Sam!"

There was no hope for him, none at all. The wolves and the human could hear the gnashing of undead wolves' jaws as they tore Sam's flesh apart and as the jaws of undead wolves crushed his small bones...


	15. Treetop Survival

**Chapter 14**

**Treetop Survival**

"Could things get any worse?" wailed Princess. "We lose our home, and so many friends and family. Then I lose my oldest friend and one of my puppies! Now this happened!"

The fifteen wolves and two puppies were looking for yet another temporary home...again! They had not been living in that tomb in the middle of the cemetery, with the hunter, for long before all hell broke loose. The hunter had gone out the next morning—he had been sure that the undead wolves had moved on—to bury Sam, the youngest of Princess and Runt's three puppies. He had exited the tomb by himself; he had left the door open, just enough that the wolves could push it open and escape if something bad happened—again. The first thing the hunter had found was the remains of Sam, which were very little. First, there was his skull, which the undead had stripped of three quarters of his flesh. In addition, Sam's spinal column and ribcage, which the undead had left behind, were not far from his skull. Although the undead had left Sam's spinal column in one piece, they left his ribcage in pieces. Not too far from these bones was the busted him. His bones had signs that proved wolves had chewed on them. Then there was the blood. So much blood and gore! The grass had turned red with Sam's blood. Some of his miniscule internal organs lay strewn about. A few feet away from the door was Sam's stomach, the partially digested contents spilled out. His intestines, stretched out through the grass, resembled a snake, a shriveled and bloody snake. The only other organs Princess and Runt remembered seeing had been their son's half-eaten liver and his heart, leaking blood. Maybe his left lung, too, but they had not been sure.

That was all the wolves and the puppies remembered seeing before even more blood spilled. The undead had come back. They heard the hunter scream as an undead wolf tore his left leg clean off in an instant. He had been digging a hole with his hands and his knife when it happened. As quickly as that lone undead wolf tore his leg off, a small horde of undead wolves seemed to come out of nowhere. The living wolves had no chance to attempt rescuing the hunter, so they just ran for their lives. The small horde of undead wolves stayed behind to consume the dying hunter. They would never forget those bloodcurdling, spine chilling screams as the undead tore him to pieces. The only good news was that the undead wolves had not wounded any of the wolves.

That fact was not a fact that made Princess and Runt feel any better about the brutal slaughter of their youngest puppy, their youngest son. No parents deserve to listen to their son scream like that and listen to the undead wolves tear him apart. They would never get the sound of their son's flesh tearing and his bones crush out of their minds. Nothing could possibly make them forget it. More so, no parents should be witness to the gory remains of one of their children. They saw it all—from Sam's blood, to his stomach, to his intestines, his half-eaten liver, and his bleeding heart. That was any parents' own personal hell. Nevertheless, their own personal hell that made Princess and Runt more determined to keep Terra and Danny alive, to prevent them from sharing their little brother's fate. They would be damned if they lost another puppy to the undead. In addition, that was not the end of it. Princess and Runt would do all they could to prevent the deaths of any more of their relatives, or their good friend Candy. If any of the she-wolves—excluding an elderly Eve—died, they would not be the only victim of the undead. So would that she-wolf's unborn puppies. The death of any of these adult she-wolves was actually like the death of three to eight deaths, not just one death.

That was the case with Melissa. When that undead wolf tore open her throat, and she died, anywhere from two to seven puppies died with their mother. If the still-living she-wolves were right, there would be sixty-nine puppies would be born next spring, if they all survived that long. They hoped that they would find a new—and, more importantly, a safe—home before the she-wolves gave birth.

Kate was expecting to give birth to five puppies. This was something that surprised her, when she began having such feelings. The last time Kate and Humphrey mated was the mating season before Kate gave birth to Claudette, Runt, and Stinky. That was about three years ago. She-wolves had an instinct about when they believed puppies were starting to grow inside their wombs, and how many puppies they might have. Sometimes these instincts proved to be correct, while, other times, they were wrong.

Princess was expecting, in her second litter, to birth a litter just three puppies, just as in the first litter she had. She expected to only birth litters of three puppies every time she mated with Runt in the future, always. That was due to her hellish life in Banff—it all started when Princess's own cousin brutally raped her. He had been the son of her mother's sister. King murdered him for doing that to his daughter, with no protest from Queen, his mate. Things got much worse after she supported the wolves from jasper in that first battle, the one they fought to rescue Runt. The rogues starved, beat, and orally raped Princess for a year of her life. All of this contributed to her believing that litters of three puppies was all she'd ever have, even if Runt couldn't be any healthier than he was.

Magril was expecting to give birth to only ten wolves, also because of an abusive father, like Princess. Of course, Magril was lucky to never had a father as evil as King, formerly known as Slash. Nars, who the rogues tore apart when he and Ed distracted them for the Western Pack's stake, used to beat Magril and Fleet when they did something wrong during training for the Great Wolf Games. Nars's act of child abuse among wolves was why Magril, now a widow, believed this. She never told Liam about her past before the undead wolves killed her mate.

Claudette was an extremely wolf who never mated with anyone until she rode Fleet at The Howling Rock two-and-a-half months ago. She never suffered any sort of physical or psychological abuse that would affect the number of puppies she would have. The fact that a herd of caribou trampled Kate, a few weeks before she conceived Claudette, Runt, and Stinky from Humphrey, could be why Kate only had three puppies three years ago, and only expected five to birth five puppies this time. Claudette was expecting to give birth to fourteen puppies next spring. Seven was usually the maximum number of puppies a she-wolf could have.

Then there was Claws. Although she was the highest-ranking Beta wolf of the united Eastern and Western packs, she was far from healthiest wolf of either pack. That was partially due to the famine in the now desolate Eastern Territory, before the horde of undead killed all but eighteen of her pack members. The Eastern Wolves had been lucky to get a bone with scraps of flesh on it, on some days. Claws got more meat back then from all the rats, which they had shared a cave with, than from going on caribou hunts. Claws and Scar hardly survived consuming those rats that never seemed to be aware of the danger wolves posed to them. They hated rats, as a species and as a food source, but desperate times called for desperate measures. The desperate times had been the time, and the desperate measures had been eating rats. Anyway, it was all due to this that Claws was expecting to birth only two puppies in her second little with Scar. She expected that runts would be born, if the puppies even made it to spring. Alternatively, if Claws even survived until spring to have her puppies, with the condition she was currently suffering from. Claws and Scar's first litter died while it was still in Claw's womb. Claws still gave birth, but to stillborn puppies, not living ones. If that had not been horrifying enough for a first time mother, learning that those puppies had started rotting in her womb made giving birth nothing more than pure hell. Claws had been lucky that they had not started falling apart inside the womb. On the other hand, when Claws gave birth to those stillborn puppies, they could have fallen apart on the way out. Still, Claws had suffered from an infection that would have killed her if it had not been for Eve's actions. Just two puppies were all she had! Would it even be worth to have that happen again, just over two puppies? Claws was hoping those two puppies would come out perfect, or at least alive, or she would_ never_ make love with another wolf again. Not even Scar.

Next, there was Lilly, who mated with Garth for the first time in the grassy field they once called home. Lilly had eaten fermented berries—basically, she was wasted—and she rode Garth passionately, with a pinecone stuck in her muzzle. Lilly was used to other things being stuck in her muzzle, usually just as hard, maybe harder, so a pine cone in her muzzle had been nothing to her. Lilly was now expecting to give birth to eight puppies, but had originally hoped for more. Lilly had rode Garth so passionately on that bed of moss that her mate had filled her with more of his fluids than she had expected. (Lilly never swallowed that much of Garth's bodily fluids when he climaxed in her muzzle.)

The next pregnant wolf was Candy, the widow of Mooch. To keep her history a little more brief, Candy was expecting to have thirteen puppies. If she had not sucked off Mooch or took it in her tailhole every night, maybe that number would be fourteen puppies. It saddened Candy that Mooch would never see their puppies, just as it saddened so many others that Liam would never get to see his and Magril's puppies, and that Melissa would never give birth!

Lastly, there was Mica, an Alpha, and the mate of Stinky. For all the same reasons Claudette was expecting fourteen puppies, Mica was expecting to give birth to a healthy litter of seven puppies, the maximum number a wolf of her species could hope to have.

If that undead wolf had not torn her throat open, Melissa would have likely had only six puppies, for the same reasons Princess was expecting only three puppies. The different was that Melissa had been much more willing to blow male wolves when she lived in Banff, but most males beat Melissa because her teeth scratched them. She never wrapped her tongue around those wolves' reproductive organs as the she-wolves of other parks did. Living in Jasper had changed that, in addition to her behavior. From the start, Melissa used her tongue when she used to blow Hutch. She was used to swallowing from Banff, but none of those rogues' fluids had tasted as good to Melissa as Hutch's fluids had. She did not know what the other rogue she-wolves liked, but Melissa did not enjoy the taste of other wolves' blood in it. The rogues were cannibals, so she had expected that, but it did not mean she had enjoyed the taste any. Hutch might have been able to see their puppies he and Melissa had not died. Hutch died to save Melissa, who then would not give birth if he had not died. Hutch died to save twenty-six lives, between Mica and Magril and the amount of puppies they expected to have.

"Where are we going now, Runt?" asked eve.

Eve's youngest grandchild was now leading the group of survivors, rather than Kate or Princess.

"Trees," said Runt; everyone knew what he meant immediately.

"We're going to climb trees?" yelped Kate. "In my nightmare, Candy and Sweets died because they slept in a tree that had rotting branches. They fell into a swarm of the zombie wolves."

"I know my trees, mother," Runt pressed. "If I see a tree that even looks like it may be rotting, I will not even consider it. I won't let any of you sleep in a dead or a rotting tree."

"What about Terra and Danny?" Princess gasped. "They don't know how to climb trees, for crying out loud!"

"Yes, we do, mommy," said Terra.

"What?" Princess gasped again. "When did you learn?"

"I thought them the last time you were away, on a pack hunt," Runt nervously admitted.

"Why on Earth did you consult me first?" cried Princess. "You put our children at risk when I wasn't around! What if something bad had happened to them?"

"We did fine!" Terra insisted.

"And we were never in danger!" Danny added.

"Good to know," spat Princess, still looking at Runt. "But don't do anything like that again without my permission when I give birth to our second litter, when they are older."

"Yes, dear," Runt said, and then ducked his head in deference of his mate, in one of the few ways a wolf could act submissive of another wolf.

"What tree did you have in mind?" asked Claws.

"I was thinking of that oak tree," said Runt. "Just look at the far left side and you'll understand why."

The wolves looked at the nearest oak tree; it was massive, the biggest tree, of any species, they had ever seen. On the left side of it, there was a good-sized cliff, for lack of a better term. If the wolves could all get up there, they would be safe from the undead wolves so long as they did not sleep too close to the edge.

Five minutes later, the fifteen wolves and the two puppies were had all climbed up the tree to that cliff. Luckily, even Claws and Scar had decided to learn about tree climbing from Runt. They used to use tree climbing for hunting purposes, and nothing else.

"Where are we going after this, Kate?" asked Scar.

Kate replied, "Sleeping in trees at night, we will travel as far as we can each day until we get to the gas station across the eastern river."


	16. A Taste of Candy

**Chapter 15**

**A Taste of Candy**

"Kate, we'll have to stay here another day," Garth said to the Alpha female the next day.

"Why?" gasped Kate. "What on Earth for?"

"Your mother fell ill sometime last night," said Fleet. "Candy thinks something might have happened to Eve's heart. She thinks it was mild, but it had put your mother into a coma. She just came out of it. Candy calls what happened to her a 'heart attack'."

"Let me see her!" Kate wailed. "Where is Lilly?"

"She's already there," said Magril.

Kate ran to where Eve was lying on her belly. She was on a pile of moss. Eve seemed to be all right now, but that did not stop Kate, her puppies and Lilly from crying.

Eve coughed, and then said in a low voice, "Don't worry too much about me, kids. I will be ready to travel by tomorrow morning. Candy said so. She knows as much about anything wrong with my body as I do, and as much about healing as I do. I told her everything I knew in case something like this ever happened to me."

"I don't want to lose you now, mother," Lilly wept, "especially not in this place swarming with zombies. No one should die in a place like this."

"I won't die on you, daughter," said Eve. "I promise. Really, if I just rest for a day, Candy says, I'll be fit for traveling like we have been again."

"Do you have a clue what could have caused this to happen?" asked Stinky.

"She seemed perfectly fine last night," said Claws. "Did you see any warning signs that Eve would have a heart attack last night, Candy?"

"No, she didn't, and I would have noticed if she had," said Candy. "It had to have been a sudden one. Stinky, the only thing I would think caused a heart attack was her witnessing the zombies tear Winston and Tony to pieces. I can't believe I didn't have a heart attack, or fainted at least, when I saw the same thing happen to Salty, Shakey, and Mooch."

"But will she be fine now?" asked Humphrey.

"Of course she will," said Candy. "I know a great deal about using plants as medicine thanks to Reba and Janice. Not long before their deaths, they told me about a flower that helps heal ailing hearts, when mixed with the right hers. I want all of you to take a good look at all these flowers and herbs I have before you. Everyone needs to know what they are, and how and where to find them, and how to create this mixture in the case of something bad happening to me. You never know what will happen anymore." In detail, she explained and showed them exactly how to do everything she had just summarized.

"There is one problem, though," Candy added when she was done.

"What's that?" asked Scar.

"This is all I have left to make this mixture. I need to get more of it. Three of you need to come with me."

Garth, Fleet and Scar immediately volunteered before any other she-wolf could. The only reason they would let Candy come along with them was that she would make finding everything so much easier. The greatest advantage they had, probably the only one they had, was the backpack they had with them. They had found it with Reba's mutilated body in the Eastern Territory. That backpack was the same backpack Reba had used to haul her food and other items from place-to-place, before her death. Now, it was serving a medicinal purpose—Eve's life depended on this backpack.

* * *

Garth had volunteered to wear the backpack as the four wolves—himself, Claws, Scar and Candy—headed into the area where Candy had found the ingredients for her mixture originally.

"Now Garth," Candy started giving them instructions, "I want you to stay here with Scar and wait for Fleet and me to come back with everything we need. It will be a while. You two can handle yourselves if something bad happens, and so can Fleet and I."

Fleet and Candy took off together after Fleet took the backpack from Garth. It was tricky to get that backpack on and off, considering they were wolves. He had realized that he and Candy would need this backpack so they did not have to constantly run back to Garth and Scar with mouthfuls of herbs and flowers. Furthermore, that would damage those items. How else would they get the flowers and herbs out of this clearing easily, without damaging or destroying them? Calling for Garth and Scar would not only possibly alert any undead that could be in the area. In addition, it would take longer, which would not be beneficial to Eve, as stabilized as she was now.

In the back of her mind, Candy was thinking about how bad her heat was because Mooch was dead. Candy was so used to doing all sorts of sexual things to Mooch, and used to being on the receiving end of such attacks. Candy and Mooch used to get physical with each other every night. Some nights, Candy would blow Mooch, and other nights, he would each her out. Sometimes, they would do it at the same time; her blowing Mooch was he ate her out. For comfort reasons, Candy had to be on top when they did this. Even after she learned of her pregnancy, there had been nights Candy rode Mooch again just for the pleasure—they knew it would not give them any more or less puppies. If not that, Mooch would mate with her from behind, specifically sticking it in her more sensitive tailhole. That was why Candy sometimes rode Mooch in reverse of how she normally did, once he was stuck in her tailhole.

Candy and Mooch had exchanged their bodily fluids so many times before Mooch's death that wolves began to joke, "Candy was the only wolf who could get wasted on sex." Candy was not afraid to do any such acts in public, when others could see and/or hear them do it.

Although Candy was happy that Princess and Runt's three puppies were still alive, even if it was only two of them now, they were the reason Candy had not been touching herself at night for pleasure. That was how she had been keeping herself satisfied because she had no one to pleasure her. All of the male wolves here were married, and probably would not have considered it anyway, she assumed.

Candy stopped walking. Fleet did as a result.

"Is something wrong?" Flee tasked.

"Yes," Candy said. Her voice was dead serious. "You know how Mooch died?" Fleet nodded his head. "Well, I used to do something se-" she coughed. "-you know. With him gone, in a so bad of a heat that it hurts! It is that bad."

"You aren't asking me to mate with you, are you?" Fleet gasped.

"No. I would never force you, or anyone, to cheat on their mate just to make me feel better."

"Then...what are you going to do?"

"I have no choice but to take care of it myself." Candy started to cry. "Oh, Fleet, I wish I hadn't been such a...I won't even say the word! You know what I mean, surely."

"What d you mean about 'not wanting to be a...'" he coughed.

"I used to have some kind of intimate contact with Mooch every night," she admitted. "I am so obsessed with all kinds such contact that I had to being the giver or receiver to stay out of heat. I was always in heat by the end of each day because of everything Mooch and I did to each other for pure pleasure and nothing else. It is eating me alive, mentally killing me! I cannot go on living like this. I am afraid to go anywhere alone because of the zombies. Moreover, I will not do it anywhere near our group, because of Terra and Danny. No puppy needs to hear me moaning because I'm touching myself..." She wiped away tears, but they came back.

Fleet could tell she was truly suffering. "Are you saying you want me to be out of hearing range of any danger as you pleasure yourself!" gasped Fleet. "At the risk of sounding like I want to hear your moans to get turned on—that is _not_ my intentions—I am going to stay nearby so I can help you if something bad happens. I mean the zombies. We don't know if there are any here or not."

"But...what about hearing me moan?" Candy asked in a low voice.

"I don't mind listening to you pleasure yourself..."

"Fleet!" Candy slapped him across the face with her right paw.

"Let me explain...I'm not that sort of wolf. I am used to it thanks to Claudette and Magril. Before I married Claudette, Magril and I lived alone in the cave I had shared with her, Claudette and Liam. Magril used to touch herself when she thought I was sleeping; she had not wanted me to hear her. I had stayed so silent and still so she would not be embarrassed about me being away and hearing her moaning. I'm too good of a brother to let that happen."

This had been when Magril and Fleet were adolescents, not puppies. No puppies had feelings that made him- or herself want to touch him- or herself. Fleet continued, "Claudette touched herself after we married and she lived in our cave, when she was sure Magril was sleeping. She did it even if I was awake, even when I could see her doing it. She did it to tease me."

"But you enjoyed it, being her mate, correct?"

"I won't lie to you," said Fleet. "Of course I did. So much so that Claudette used to paws or mouth on me afterward to...well, you know..." Fleet was blushing with embarrassment. He was telling a wolf older than himself that he used to receive paw- and blowjobs from Claudette. Fleet was questioning his sanity now. Really, why was he talking about _that_ kind of personal life to Candy?

"I'm sorry. I will just go take care of my problem then we can gather what we need. Maybe you could do it while I take care of my problem. Remember, what did I tell you on the way here? You know just as well as I do what we are looking for. You do not have to go far from where I will be, so do not worry too much about me. I'll be fine..."

"I'll get everything gathered quickly, Candy," said Fleet. "I promise. Let us just take care of each other's business and get back to the tree.

Fleet was still in Candy's view as he began gathering the herbs and flower she had described to him on the way here.

Candy could tell that Fleet was gathering the correct ingredients as she started touching herself. She was rubbing her right paw over the sensitive area between her legs. Lying on her back against a tree truck, she enjoyed this feeling. She did not enjoy it as much as she with mated with Mooch or when he licked her in the area, which she was now touching. Soon, Candy started poking one of the toes on her front right paw in and out of her, instead of just rubbing herself. It felt so much better and it reminded her, a little, of the feeling of having Mooch sticking himself in her. At least more than rubbing herself did.

Candy was moaning and screaming with pleasure as she fingered herself. However, even that was not something that gave her all of the pleasure she was looking for.

_Nothing could replace Mooch's dick_, she thought about how different touching herself felt in comparison to mating. Now, she started touching herself with her tail, sticking the tip of it in and out of her.

The tip of Candy's tail was already as wet, with her bodily fluids, as her right paw and her crotch were. There was a semi-transparent white fluid on all three, in addition to on the ground between her legs. Candy was breathing heavily when she thought she heard a low moan. It was _not_ Fleet, and definitely _not _her; she was not moaning now. Candy could still see Fleet gathering herbs. He seemed to be almost done.

She heard that moan again. It was more incoherent than any moan a healthy wolf could make. Candy sniffed the air and a cold feeling shot down her spinal column. Candy smelled rotting flesh and heard shambling footsteps, in addition to the eerie moans.

"Zombies!" Candy screamed at the top of her lungs. "Run, Fleet, Run!"

"Candy! Get out of there!" Fleet screamed back. Candy started screaming; it was not words but screams of agony. She never came out of the bush, no matter how many times Fleet screamed for her to come out. What happened next made Fleet lose all hope of seeing Candy again.

_Blood!_ he thought _Oh no..._ Blood was flowing out through the bushes like water.

"CANDY!" Fleet ran into the clearing, screaming her name repeatedly. He received no answer because she was no longer living. An undead wolf had torn her belly open and was eating Candy's stomach. The undead wolf had buried its muzzle in the hole torn in her stomach. Blood was everywhere. It was dripping from her muzzle. Candy's eyes were still open, as her head fell to the side.

"I'm sorry, Candy," Fleet whispered sadly, as more undead wolves showed and tore Candy's dead body apart.

The only good thing that came out of this was that Fleet had gathered everything needed to treat Eve. At least he had gotten to know a little bit about Candy before her death.

Fleet told the others about what happened to Candy when he finally found Garth and Scar again.

"Candy didn't make it," he said. "We need to get out of here. Now."


	17. Age Catches Up With Eve

**Chapter 16**

**Age Catches Up with Eve**

"Where the hell is Candy?" Kate asked when Garth, Fleet, and Scar returned without Candy. Her grandpups, Terra and Danny, were not within hearing range. They were still up in the tree, playing with Mica's tail. Humphrey, Runt, and Stinky were on either side of Kate.

Fleet started crying at the mention of Candy. "I got her killed..."

Kate and the others gasped. "Tell us what happened," said Kate. "Take your time..."

"Candy had said her heat was 'killing her'—because of everything she used to do to Mooch. S-she had gone into the bushes to t-touch herself. I heard her s-scream and I found a zombie wolf e-eating C-Candy's stomach! M-more showed up and t-tore her apart..." Fleet's voice shook as her recounted what happened to Candy.

"Fleet got everything needed to help Eve's heart...," said Scar.

"Yes," said Fleet. "Now, I just want to be alone with Claudette and Magril for a while..." Fleet was worried about the possibility that what happened to Candy could—_would_—happen to his older mate or his little sister. It was bad enough that Candy died because he had left her alone to touch herself! Fleet would never forgive himself for what happened.

Fleet slipped away from the group, crying. He let everyone else who was still up in the tree know Candy was dead, before he went to weep in one of the corners. Claudette and Magril went to console him, lying down on their bellies, on either side of him.

Kate returned to the tree cliff with Humphrey, Runt, Stinky, Garth, and Scar a few minutes later.

Princess let out a sad sigh. "I don't understand why Fleet blames himself for Candy's death."

"You'll want to send your puppies away," said Scar. "They don't need to hear this."

"Mica, Claws," said Runt. "Go watch over them. Just cover their ears so they can't hear anything."

That was what they did after they led Terra and Danny to the opposite corner from where Fleet lay, crying.

""Tell us what happened, exactly, Scar," said Kate, "because it seems Fleet can't."

"Well, he already explained it to us...he had just spoken with Candy about her mental problem of constantly engaging in certain acts, which I won't describe, with Mooch every night before his death. You all know how Mooch died. That is why Fleet told Candy to...ahem... touch herself until she felt better. Candy wouldn't do it here because she hadn't wanted the puppies to hear her moans."

"But...Fleet couldn't have known there had been zombies nearby," said Garth. "You can't until they are right on you—that is the only time you can hear or smell them. He should not be blaming himself for nothing more than an accident. Fleet is not to blame, nor is Candy, based on what he told us."

"You try to convince Fleet that that is true," said Kate. "None of you were the ones who saw the zombies tear Candy apart. Fleet is. You are correct. However, do any of you know what it is like to see someone close to you torn apart by the undead? No, you do not. Anyone who does is dead, except for my mother. Do not even try to make Fleet believe he is not responsible, at least not yet. He could act out violently. Just let Claudette and Magril do what they can to console him."

"It's getting dark," said Humphrey. "We should prepare for sleep. All of you should. We can discuss this further in the morning."

* * *

Things were not any better the next morning. No, not Fleet. He still felt bad about what happened to Candy, but at least he was no longer blaming himself, or anyone, for her death. Things were worse for Eve. When Kate and Lilly had gone to check on their mother, they found Eve in a coma.

Eve's condition hardly improved ten minutes later, even after the other wolves gave her the organic mixture that was supposed to help her heart. It seemed to do nothing for Eve. They knew it had helped Eve before, so, because it was not know, the younger wolves were beginning to suspect that Eve was dying. Everyone wolf who was related to Eve, or not, was crying, especially Kate and Lilly. How could they not crying, when their mother was dying? They sensed that Eve's body was shutting down. No one could do anything else to save her life, even if someone tried. Sometimes, when a wolf was dying, no one could do anything for them. Eve was now a perfect example this. She was an old wolf, older than Winston and Tony, so it should not come as a surprise that she was dying now. Regardless, Kate and Lilly, and the others, did not want Eve to die in a place like this, swarming with undead wolves. If she was going to die, why did this happen now, instead of after they found a safer and happier place than this?

The fact that Eve would die a natural death than to the undead, like in Kate's nightmare, did not make these wolves feel a whole like better about seeing the wolf who was either their mother, grandmother, or great-grandmother lying on her deathbed. Claws and Scar were not relatives of Eve in any way, yet seeing Eve on her deathbed still saddened them. Eve and Winston had taken Claws and Scar in after so many wolves left the Eastern Territory after the unity of the Eastern and the Western packs. Eve and Winston had treated Claws and Scar like their own children, even after a cave became available for them to move in. It was after Eve's ailing parents suddenly passed away in the night, due to old age. To be watching Eve die after this act of kindness she had shown them was enough reason for Claws and Scar to be sad.

Everyone decided to say their goodbyes to Eve now, including Claws, Scar, Terra, and Danny.

They did so not a moment too soon, it seemed, because Eve was starting to gasp for breath. She sounded like she was choking.

The last words Eve would ever speak before slipping into unconsciousness were, "I love you...all..."

Eve's voice cracked, her heart ceased beating, and she was no longer breathing. Eve was gone.

* * *

**Author's note:** I forgot to mention where I came up with the names "Sam" and "Danny". Danny is a reference to the current lead singer of the band Hollywood Undead. As for Sam, well, all I can think of is the actor Sam Worthington from the movie "Rogue".


	18. Night on a Plateau

**Chapter 17**

**One Night on a Plateau**

Kate and Lilly buried their own mother at the foot of the oak tree they had been living in. Everyone howled mournfully for Eve, and then left the area. They left behind not just a safe haven but also their friend, mother, grandmother and even great-grandmother. Eve had been a good friend of Claws and Scar, after what she and Winston did for them. She had been the biological mother of Kate and Lilly, and the stepmother of Humphrey and Garth, because they were married to Kate and Lilly. Eve had been the biological grandmother of Claudette, Stinky, and Runt, and the step-grandmother of Princess, Mica, Fleet, Fleet, and Liam. Lastly, eve had been the biological great-grandmother of Terra, Danny, and Sam, the puppies of Princess and Runt. Eve was lucky to have lived long enough life to know her great-grandchildren. Most wolves were lucky to live long enough to see their grandchildren. It was comforting that Eve had lived this long, but that did not make the now fifteen survivors miss her any less than they did.

It was over two weeks since Eve passed away. In that time, no one lost his or her lives since. The still fifteen survivors were now spending their night on a plateau located midway between Jasper Park and Banff Park. Their intention was to go as far as the gas station before they planned the rest of their path. That specific gas station was the one Kate, Humphrey, Lilly and Eve had ended up living in. It was across the river that separated Jasper and Banff. Beyond the city was Banff. They were going south. The gas station they had in mind was the one where Kate and Humphrey the owner almost killed them with a shotgun. The owner was on good terms with Kate and Humphrey after their first Christmas with Claudette, Stinky, and Runt. That was because he had seen they had puppies since he last saw them.

Claudette had joked that maybe they would see Marcel and Paddy, the goose and duck who helped Kate and Humphrey find their way back to Jasper after the rangers took them to Idaho. Although she had had good intentions, no amount of humor could lighten the mood after Eve's death.

When they reached the gas station, the wolves hoped to find a map of the surrounding area inside it. They had not been lucky enough to locate such a thing at the park rangers' station. All the wolves had found there were the mutilated corpses of two of the three park rangers. Both of them had self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head. Their handguns had still been in their cold, dead hand, and the shell casings not far away. The undead wolves had killed the third one a few days before; that was where Reba found the backpack on, on the corpse of the third park ranger. This time, Stinky was the wolf who was carrying the backpack. He had it over his back, as he should carry it. If they did find a map, in the backpack was where they would put it. That way, if it happened to snow or rain, precipitation would not damage it. Oddly, there had not been any precipitation since the undead attacked the Western Territory of Jasper.

"I hate this all!" spat Claws. "We've gone from a pack of nineteen to a pack of fifteen wolves in only a few days! That sure is a bad start for wolves who want to stay alive!"

"Stay calm, my dear" said Scar. Claws lost her temper, and bit at her own mate. Scar yelped with fear and ran back a little.

"Stop, Claws," said Kate. "That is an order!"

Claws sincerely apologized to Scar. Scar was usually the only wolf she would apologize to and mean it, when not being forced to.

"We've gone two weeks without losing anyone to the zombies," said Lilly. "Let's try and keep it that way." Lilly was trying to stay optimistic, hoping her optimism would spread to the other wolves. "We need to keep our hopes up."

"I agree. If we are even more careful than we have been," said Mica, "we won't lose another life to those zombies, or whatever you want to call them."

Terra and Danny yawned.

"Mommy," Terra said to Princess, "it's getting dark."

"We're tired!" cried Danny.

The memory of Sam's death was still fresh in their minds. Princess, Runt, Terra and Danny still cried themselves to sleep over Sam's slaughter. Death was not a good enough word to describe how bad Sam died. He suffered. Sam had been so young; no one deserved to die young. No one deserved to be killed so brutally, young, or old. Nevertheless, puppies seemed to suffer more when something bad happened, and they witnessed or overhead it.

"Go to sleep, dears," said Princess, calmly. "You don't need to stay awake for our conversations. Terra and Danny were both up against their mother's soft underbelly. They put the sides of their small heads against Princess's belly. They fell asleep quickly.

"Kate," whispered Princess. "You're planning something, aren't you? Where are you going to take us after we rest up at the gas station?"

Kate hesitated. Princess was going to hate her for what she said next. "Banff..." she whispered.

"What?" Princess gasped in a low voice. She was shocked, but still, she did not want to wake up her sleeping puppies. "You expect me to go back there? I don't care if they're all dead or undead, I can't force myself to return to Banff!"

"Mother, what if there are still zombies in Banff?" asked Stinky.

"We'll destroy the few that are there," said Humphrey.

"What do you mean by 'The few that are there'?" asked Magril.

"Do you remember how many zombie rogues there were when they attacked the Western Territory?" Kate looked at Magril. "I have my reasons to suspect, because there had been so many then, that there are very few, if any, zombie or living rogues left in Banff. If there are any zombies in Banff, we will destroy them all. As for living rogues, we will have no choice but to kill any of them who refuse to become part of our pack, or at least agree with talks of peace between our separate packs. We can't afford to live in a new home if they are going to try and kill any of us."

"What about _now_?" asked Princess, still not liking the idea of calling that hellhole home again, even with Kate as the Alpha female and Humphrey as the Alpha male.

Kate did not know how to answer.


	19. Claws Can't Go On

**Chapter 18**

**"Claws can't go on."**

Claws started crying midday the next day, as the wolves were traveling.

"What's going on?" Scar asked her, with Kate by his side.

Claws screamed in agony. "It's terrible!" wailed Claws.

"What-"

"My stomach—my womb—they feel like they're on fire!" she screamed again. "I can't take it! The pain is TOO BAD!"

"Do you still have those herbs in that bag, Fleet?"

"Forget about the herbs!" barked Claws. "They won't do anything to help me! Nothing can help me!"

"Why on Earth wouldn't there?" Kate gave her a confused look. Then it hit her. "Is there something you never told us, Claws?"

"Yes, there is," said Scar. He hesitated.

"Just tell them," groaned Claws.

"This isn't the first time Claws and I mated, but the second," Scar admitted.

"What happened the first time?" asked Magril.

"The puppies didn't develop right early on. They died after six months of development. We could do nothing to remove them. If we had been able to, then maybe this would not be happening to her. When they were born, the puppies came out stillborn and rotting. We still fear that their bodies fell apart inside Claws' womb, and they had caused some sort of infection to spread through her body."

"My condition has been getting worse for years," said Claws, "so that is what we fear has happened. I don't know how much longer I can go on with you all, but I'll take myself as far as I can." Then she started speaking in a crying voice, "W-we can't deny it now. I can feel their rotting remains, little as there is, in my womb. I know I have a disease that rot spreads has infected me, and infected my new litter of puppies in my womb. I-I will _never_ because a mother because of that stupid feud between the Eastern and Western packs. Because of Tony's ignorance—and I am truly sorry, Garth, for saying that—there was a shortage of caribou in the East. Except for rats, Scar and I would go days without a meal. You cannot expect to have healthy puppies after going through what we did. I never will. Garth's mother, Tony's only mate, died of starvation when Garth was just a naked puppy because of Tony's ignorance. I do not know if you knew that Garth, but I was an adolescent then. Your own father caused your mother's death."

"What are you saying, Claws?" Kate blinked.

"That I will not make it to the gas station," Claws clarified. "I'll go as far as I can, but you'll know that I'll soon be too weak to go on anymore. You all know that I will die because of this infection. It is making me weak and slowly destroying my body from the inside out. I can feel the flesh of my womb and this little of puppies rotting as we speak. I am stick—physically sick..." Claws was in tears and felt like throwing up.

Claws began vomiting less than a minute later. She was retching loudly. Not just seeing this take place but also hearing it made the other wolves sick. It was hard to believe that none of them had joined Claws in vomiting yet. Maybe it was because of how much this scene shocked them. It was not just normal vomit—what Claws had eaten—that she regurgitated. The vomit was red. Claws was vomiting up blood!

Kate screamed. "Blood! She's puking up blood!"

Scar started panicking, too. "What does it mean? Tell me!"

"Nothing good," Claudette gagged. "Something terrible is going on inside her body. What else can we suspect other than what she said about her womb suffering from disease that is rotting its flesh and her puppies? What else could be responsible for internal bleeding, giving what we know?"

Claws finished vomiting up blood, but she still felt terrible. Actually, she felt so much worse, that she just wanted to go off and die somewhere! She would let her friends know that she felt like shit if Terra and Danny were not present to hear her curse. Nevertheless, Claws was glad they were here, primarily because they were still alive. Her anger had been immeasurable when the undead killed Sam. There was also a personal reason that she was glad they were alive. Claws did not curse at all when the puppies were around; therefore, she was slowly weaning herself off cursing. Claws used to curse constantly whenever there were not puppies or pre-teen wolves around. In her life, Claw used about every profanity from more mild phrases like "hell" and "damn" to more vulgar phrases, such as when she called the rogues "pieces of shit" and "heartless motherfuckers" for almost killing Scar.

Claws was normally a strong, mean-spirited wolf with a "tough bitch" personality. She had the temper of a grizzly bear mother protecting its cubs. However, Claws also had a softer side that she rarely showed, fearing that the Betas whom she outranked would call her a "pussy" or any other kind of insult that meant coward. Of course, they were the same fools who had wanted her pussy. They never got it from her. She cursed them up and down for even asking to mate with her, when she was not even in heat, no less! What would have been the point? A wolf could not get pregnant if she was not in heat!

"Dumb fucks" was what Claws had thought about them back then. She would never have mated with even one of them, even if it had meant that Claws received all the food a wolf would ever want. She was not some whore who would do things for payment. In this case, that payment had hypothetically been food. Claws would rather have Scar fuck her, from behind, up a splintery tree than mate with any other Eastern Beta. Even if in the most comfortable position, she still would not let them mate with her!

Claws never showed her loving side to adult wolves other than Scar. Until now, only puppies had witnessed her soft and/or loving side. Now, she was showing her soft side because her body was going through hell! She had never shown her softer side until now because Claws could connect to younger wolves more than she could connect to wolves of her own age. Maybe it was because sex was not a very important thing on the mind of younger wolves, especially the puppies. The adolescents would not even think about mating with a wolf that was so much older than they were. All they did was mate with their girlfriends before those she-wolves were in heat, so they did not have the responsibility of puppies at a young age. Other than that, the adolescent wolves would just give or receive pawjobs or blowjobs, depending on their genders. Okay, the younger wolves only thought about sex when they reached the adolescent stage, but at least they did not go around fucking everything with four legs like her generation had. Scar was one of the few wolves who was not like that, nor was Claws.

It was because of those now dead members of her back that Claws had developed an attitude. Her attitude had been worse years ago in comparison to now. Back then, a few years ago, no one would have been surprised if she murdered a wolf for asking her to blow him. Claws was the kind of wolf who would bite off a male wolf's dick, if she did not like him, before she would suck it. She would much rather drink his blood than his fluids. Scar was the only wolf she had ever sucked off before, and she only did it once because Claws had wanted to know what such fluids tasted like. She had enjoyed, even savored, it's salty flavor because it had reminded her of caribou. That was why she had swallowed every ounce of it when Scar climaxed in her mouth. Claws loved honey for its consistency alone, and that was why she had loved the taste of Scar's fluids. It had been thick and salty, but it had gone down her throat easy. Honestly, that had probably been the most vitamins and minerals Claws ever ingested during the famine in the Eastern Territory. In addition, it had probably been the healthiest thing she ever consumed during that terrible time.

Claws never went to Moonlight Howls with anyone but Scar. If he could not go, then neither would she, even if there was a line-up of males wanting to date her, if just for one night. Claws had been the wolf howling with Scar at the top of The Howling Rock when Kate, Humphrey, Lilly, Candy, Sweets, Salty, Shakey, and Mooch arrived at The Howling Rock. She and Scar had been dancing on their hind legs and howling with each other.

The physical look she had at Moonlight Howls was how she always looked now. Claws had a shorter mane than Eve; she used to wear her mane behind her head except for when she was at Moonlight Howls. No one could see Claws's ears when she wore her mane behind her head. Now that she wore it over her face regularly—more accurately, always—her ears showed through. Because of her mane laying her ears back, other wolves never saw her large ears. At the split of her mane, there were two tufts of her hair sticking up. Claws had a long muzzle like Mica, and hips and breasts—not the ones that produced milk after a she-wolf gave birth; those were on her belly—as wide as her shoulders. One of the definitions for the word could explain the sort of breasts wolves had: "the front part of a bird's body." In this case, breasts referred to the front part of a she-wolf's body. One thing that male wolves always said about Claws was, referencing her butt and her temper, was that "Claws had a big old mouth and an ass to match." She almost killed someone who said that to her once. That was the last time someone talked about Claws's butt, and her temper, even when she was not around. Claws was a "see everything, hear everything" kind of wolf, it seemed.

When Claws had lived in that hellhole known as the Eastern Territory, personal hygiene and what she looked had only been important to her when she and Scar went to Moonlight Howls. During those terrible times, Claws and Scar never had the energy to accomplish a whole lot, not even mating. They had never considered mating all those years ago, because their puppies would not survive in the Eastern Territory. Rats would not be enough to feed puppies. It definitely had not been enough for Claws and Scar. The Eastern wolves had no food back then. No food meant they had no energy and no energy meant wolves never accomplished anything but sleeping. Not even sleep could renew their lost energy though. They needed subsistence to renew their lost energy, in addition to sleep. Not many of the Eastern wolves had had the energy to go on hunts or to take part in Moonlight Howls. For that reason, Claws and Scar had usually been the only Eastern wolves who went to the Howling Rock to howl and dance. They had just enough energy to do so because of those rats that lived at the back of their cave in nests. However, when that food supply had begun running out—because the rats had not been mating as they should—Claws and Scar had been given no choice but to stop going to The Moonlight Howls everything.

The actions of that damn fool Tony had ruined Claws and Scar's lives in every way as long as they had lived in the Eastern Territory. They could not start a family, even now, they had no food then, there had been very little clean water, and then it had come to not having the energy to go to The Moonlight Howls anymore. Although they would have been foolish to be voice such an opinion to Tony about what he had been doing was wrong. No one dared to tell the Alpha male that he was doing everything wrong without getting away with it. Tony probably would have had his more loyal followers execute Claws and Scar. Tony had not agreed with any opposition—there had not been any vocal opposition because all those wolves that followed Tony killed them for saying Tony was wrong about everything right down to how he felt about the Western Pack.

Claws and Scar's reluctance to give Tony a piece of their minds ceased when Kate almost died because of Tony's stupidity. He had ordered his entire pack to take the valley just because Kate would not marry his son, Garth, who had fallen in love with Lilly, an Omega, instead. While Humphrey and everyone else had been mourning a supposedly dead Kate, Claws and Scar had been giving Tony hell and a little more for what he did.

This was what Claws and Scar had said to Tony, not giving their own Alpha male a chance to speak:

"Damn you, Tony!" Claws had screamed at Tony. "Kate is dead because of how ignorant you are!"

"If she doesn't wake up," Scar had said, "how will you be able to sleep at night?"

Claws had said this shocking statement next: "If she dies, I hope that Kate will haunt your dreams every night until you die and go to burn in Hell! Bastard! You stupid scumbag, I hope you _never_ forgot what happened, even if Kate does live! I hope that you Kate's death will haunt you every time you close your eyes! I hope this causes your death. You make me sick, fucking sick, Tony! You can go die in a fucking hole of a heart attack, as far as I'm concerned."

"We are done with you-" Scar had begun. Wolves who were shouting that Kate was alive cut him off. Still, learning that Kate was actually alive did nothing to renew Claws and Scar's loyalty in Tony. Especially not after everything that had happened because of him. So many other Eastern wolves had felt the same way about their Alpha male, and so they all joined Claws and Scar in moving to the Western Territory, to living under rule of Kate and Humphrey. They had left Tony alone in the Eastern Territory. He joined them a few days later.

No one ever forgave Tony for what happened to Kate, especially his own son Garth, as well as Humphrey, Lilly, Winston, Even, Claws, Scar, Candy, Sweets, and the vegetarians Reba and Janice. For months, no one spoke to Tony, and the wolves would not even relieve themselves in his direction. Tony knew he had messed up bad if he no one even wanted to urinate in his direction. Literally, they would turn around and relieve themselves in the other direction.

Claws had once gone as far to say, "I wouldn't even shit on that heartless fuck" about Tony. She had known Tony had been within hearing range, which was why she had said such a vulgar thing, as true as it had been. Claws still hadn't forgave Tony for almost causing Kate's death, even if his mutilated corpse was now rotting somewhere in the Western Territory, and in the stomachs of the undead wolves.

When she had been asked how she felt about Tony's death, Claws had said, "Call me a heartless bitch, but I think he deserved it." Thankfully, Garth had not been with the survivors at the time, or he probably would have killed Claws for saying his father deserved to die at the teeth and claws of the undead. Garth still did not know this—no one would dare tell him, for Claws's sake.

It would not change much now though, if Garth did hear about what Claws had said about his father. Claws was going to die whether Garth heard about it, and killed or, or he did not hear about it.

* * *

The group of survivors stopped traveling again, when Claws collapsed by a massive boulder. Everyone could sense how weak Claws was. Her breaths were as labored as Eve's had been before she passed away. Claws was gasping for air. There was no luster in her fur, or in the colored part of her eyes. Claws looked more like an undead wolf, more than a living one, with how gray her fur was. Her fur was grayed and falling off in patches. Her eyes had lost their color entirely and were blood shot. The others could only see Claw's pupils. At the rate Claws's fur had been falling off, she would be as naked as a newborn wolf puppy in a day-and-a-half or two days. If Claws did not lose her life before then, that is.

Claws now had yet another reason to hate Tony's guts now. Her body was shutting down and falling apart because of that stupid fucker's actions. Claws knew Tony was burning in Hell for everything he had done before the unity of the Eastern and Western packs. She knew she would go to Hell when she died, but she would kill him if she ever found him in Hell! Claws knew for a while that she was dying, but none of her friends had known it until Claudette had checked Claws's vitals. Her pulse was as weak as her breaths.

"Claws is dying, isn't she?" asked Scar.

No one said anything. All of Claws's friends were crying.

"Somebody better give me an answer!" he screamed. "If my mate is dying, I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO KNOW IT!"

"Yes," said Kate, in tears. "Claws is dying—her body has been shutting down for days now, it seems."

Scar blinked. "If that is the case, I want you all to go on without us."

"What-" Princess gasped.

"Stop," Scar cut her off. "If the love of my life is going to die, then I'll die with her. You would do the same for Runt if he was dying, wouldn't you, Princess?"

"Of course..." Princess whimpered.

"Is that really what you want to do?" asked Humphrey.

"You want to die with Claws?" Kate took over, shocked. "There is a pack of zombie wolves on the way here! They're not far away!"

"Yes," said Scar. "I will die with my mate, my love, Claws, even if it means we become zombies together. We'll always be with each other if we die."

Scar sat down by a dying Claws as the others reluctantly left him and Claws behind. He could hear them crying as they ran off.

Scar looked at his dying mate. Claws was bleeding from her mouth and her nose. Her blood was not red but almost black. That meant her heart—the source of all the blood in her body—was afflicted with rot, in addition to other organs. Claws and Scar were both sure that all of her blood was this black, and probably her internal organs and the flesh on the inside of her body.

Claws coughed out these words between breaths; "I love...you...Scar..." Then her head fall to the side, slowly, as her body went limp. She was dead. Scar knew it.

Scar cried to himself until the pursuing horde of undead wolves showed up. They had seen this small horde a few hours ago. He was sure they had spotted him, because the horde was shambling in the direction of him and the lifeless body of Claws. There was no emotion in Scar's face as death closed in on him. He had no emotion left to show.

As the teeth and the claws of the undead wolves tore him to pieces, Scar screamed with agony. He did not die quickly, but that was what Scar wanted to happen. He wanted to suffer just as Claws had. Scar saw that very little was left of his mate's body before his life expired.

The undead wolves had left nothing but Claws and Scar's bloody skeletons behind by the time they moved on.

* * *

**Author's note:** Well, at least I finally got around to giving some history to Claws and Scar (mostly Claws) before they died. I kind of wanted to make it seem like Claws and Scar's lives had been pure hell living in Tony's territory.

Also, that line in this chapter "a big old mouth and an ass to match" is a line from the song "Le Deux" by Hollywood Undead. I just felt like it would fit for some reason.


	20. The Train Tracks

**Chapter 19**

**The Training Tracks**

The eleven wolves and the two wolf pups heard a bloodcurdling scream of agony. His voice faded away five minutes after the screaming began. It was just one wolf, not two, screaming, but they knew it was Scar. Claws must have died before the undead wolves found them.

Kate said, "At least they died together...that is what they wanted. No one should die alone. It was noble of Scar to let the zombies kill him just so he could be with Claws. He truly was a good mate to the end. I just hope he died a quick death and didn't suffer when the zombies found them."

"We heard him screaming for a while," said Humphrey. "I don't know how quickly he died."

Claudette said the same thing her mother did. "We know what the zombies can do. I hope Scar died as quickly as someone can die. I would not wish such a brutal death on anyone, not even King and Queen if they were still alive. There is such a thing as going too far with how badly you want someone to suffer before his or her life ends. I don't want to sound like I am being sympathetic of King and Queen for what they did to Princess and Runt, but I hope you understand what I'm saying."

"We understand," Stinky said for everyone. "I just can't believe that Claws and Scar are gone. How many more of us will die before we actually get to a permanent safe haven?" He looked at his mother and his father when he asked that question.

"I wish I knew, son," Humphrey sighed. "I wish I knew. If I was going to be honest you, I would tell you that I fear very few of us, if any of us, will survive this. I don't see how we, thirteen wolves—two of whom are puppies—could possibly survive something like this."

Terra and Danny were whimpering. Was their grandmother really saying that they, and everyone else here, would die?

"Humphrey!" cried Princess. "You're scaring the young'uns!"

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "But now you all know my fears. If I was to lie, I would say that no one else will die, but we all know how big of a lie that is."

"No one else has to be killed by the zombies if we are careful and hurry on to the gas station," said Lilly. "Listen to me. The zombies killed Claws, Scar, Candy, Melissa, and Sam because we did not keep moving. The best way to say alive is to keep moving. It seems like every time we stop somewhere, that is potentially dangerous, the zombies kill someone. The only time that has not happened—yet—is when Kate and I's mother died. She's the fortunate one—she'll never know the feeling of zombies tearing you limb-from-limb, like everyone else who has died."

"Kate," Fleet said, "where on Earth are we going now? Every place we have called him in the past has ended up badly for one of us. I am sick of seeing or hearing our friends or family dying!" He raised his voice. "I want us to find a place where no one will die. Three _pregnant_ wolves have lost their lives! That is not right! Look how many puppies died with them and will never be born now. I do not want anyone else to share his or her fates, especially not Claudette and Magril! I'm sorry if I sound selfish to any of you but I just want this to be over."

Fleet never acted like this. Claudette and Magril did not know what to do to calm him down.

"Candy is dead because of me!" Fleet added.

"I told you not to bring that up again, Fleet!" Claudette snapped. Normally she would have said "dear" instead of his name, but she felt he did not deserve that title this time. "You're not to blame for Candy's death and neither is she! I don't want to hear you say something like that again or I will cuff you across the head so hard you'll be seeing stars!"

"Fleet," cried Magril, "I'm begging you to calm down. I do not want you being too stressed out...please just calm down. I don't want something bad to happen to you because you got stressed out."

"Listen to your sister and mate, Fleet," said Princess. "They are right. Just relax as best you can. Too much stress is not good for you."

"Yes, yes," Fleet said. Claudette cuffed him for the sarcastic bite he had in his voice. "I'm sorry. I realize how right you all are. I just feel bad that I could not have done something to save Candy before they killed her. I feel guilty about her being dead."

"Princess and I feel bad about what happened to Sam," said Runt, "but does that mean we are guilty about it? No. We do not feel like we are to blame. We will not forget what happened to our youngest son, yes, but we will not blame ourselves for what happened either. Fleet, listen to me, as your brother, what happened to Candy was an accident. You did not know zombies were going to be so close to her that she would not have a chance to escape. Neither did Candy. Just like no one could have know that Sam would be locked out of the tomb, just as the zombies were about to reach him."

Mica interrupted. "Can we just get going? For all your talk about blaming us staying stationary for too long, we sure are doing a lot of that right now, arguing about the past! We are not that far from the train tracks, so let's get a move on, for crying out loud!"

* * *

The group of now just thirteen surviving wolves of once nineteen wolves was crossing a grassy field just as it was starting to rain. Wolves hated the rain. Not only could the rain get them sick and cold, it was just a thorn in their side. Princess was snarling at the rain clouds, showing her teeth, as Terra walked underneath her. Danny was walking underneath Runt.

_At least someone is dry_, thought Garth. This was not the kind of wet Garth liked. Now, when Lilly was wet, that was a different. Moreover, he was not thinking about the kind of wet Lilly got when she took a bath. The kind of wet Lilly got when they did something sexual to each other, especially when he ate her out. _Come on, Garth,_ he scolded himself. _This is not a time to think about that! Get your head put on right!_ He did not need to be getting all horny right now, when they were at risk of dying at any time.

_I hate this shit_, thought Princess. She could not say that because one of her puppies was underneath her. Princess knew how sensitive her puppies were about foul language. They had been offended when Princess let the word "Damn" slip out once. Princess would not let herself curse around Terra and Danny, whether it was accident or not. Mica had been walking right next to Princess when she sneezed. Mica's mucus got all over Princess's side.

"Mica!" gasped Princess.

"I'm sorry," Mica apologized. "It hasn't been raining for long and I'm already sick. I don't have the greatest immune system."

"Are you going to be alright?" Stinky immediately asked. His hears had stuck straight up when his mate said she was already sick, and her immune system was weak.

"Yes," said Mica. "I'll be better when I get warm, though."

"I can make you feel warm very good," Stinky said sly. Mica blushed, and he received a heavy cuff across the back of his from Kate. His mother had happened to be right next to him. Now, it was Stinky's turn to be blushing with embarrassment. He invited Mica to have sex with him, very lightly implying it, and his mate was not the only wolf who heard it. Nothing could be more embarrassing for him than his mother having understood her son's innuendo—a statement with second possible meaning, usually sexual—perfectly.

Stinky's ears laid back. "You had better be embarrassed son!" Kate barked at him. "Are you really thinking about making line in a time like this?"

"I-I was not talking about mating," he lied. "I said I could keep her warm."

"Sounds like you are," Kate scoffed. "Just don't let me hear something like that out of you again! Do you understand me, Stinky?"

"Yes, mother," whimpered Stinky.

When Kate and Humphrey were out of hearing range, Mica whispered in Stinky's ear, "Don't worry. I'll put whatever you want in my muzzle." Then she added, "Sucky, sucky, Stinky," in an even lower voice that only Stinky could hear.

Stinky immediately blushed again. Mica had never sucked him off before and she had just offered, possibly, to give him a blowjob later! Obviously, he was excited, but tried to show it, fearing that Kate or Humphrey would strike him again. Stinky could not wait until he got it from her. He had heard how good it felt from his little brother, Runt, after Princess had gave him one because she lost a bet regarding who would win a certain race in The Great Wolf Games over a year ago. Mica hoped that Stinky's dick and fluids would taste as good as Princess claimed Runt's dick had. Moreover, she hoped it would be a big one, the organ, and the sticky load that she would in her mouth. Stinky and Mica would not talk or think about sexual acts again.

Unlike Stinky and Mica, no one else had such things on their mind, really. However, the deaths of their friends and relatives still haunted them. The deaths of Claws and Scar, especially, even though they had not witnessed their deaths. That was what made their deaths, and Sam's death, so scary. They had seen everyone else's deaths, so they knew what it looked like. However, the deaths of Claws, Scar, and Sam had not been that way. Some of them were imagining what brutality the undead had carried out on their bodies when they died. Kate, in particular, had been picturing what could have happened to them because of her nightmare about this happening. It was easier for Kate, over anyone else, to picture the deaths the wolves had not seen, but only heard.

"Should we stop and wait for the rain to stop?" Humphrey asked Kate suddenly. "Or should we just keep on going in the rain?"

"We'll keep going," said Kate. "I can see the train tracks from here, and that the rain is going to stop soon. The clouds are going away, and getting whiter."

"Good," said Garth. "How far do you think it is before we reach the tracks?"

"I'd say about ten minutes," she answered the wolf who would be her mate if it she had not almost died in that caribou stampede.

* * *

"Alright everyone," Kate instructed the group. "Be careful when we get on these tracks. The humans use these for their trains. I don't know if you have seen a train, but they are massive." Kate knew this because she and Humphrey had rode on a train for the final part of their journey back to Jasper, from Idaho. "If a train does come into view, _do not_ hesitate to jump off the tracks. An oncoming train is a fight you will lose. In my nightmare, Lilly lost half of her tail when she tried to jump off the tracks, and she got her tail stuck on a nail. Now, no more talk. Let's just get to the other side before the train shows up."

The wolves took off, moving in a single mass. Terra and Danny were no longer walking underneath their parents—they could easily fall through the gaps between the boards that made up the track—but on the backs of Kate and Claudette, with their legs sprawled out so they wouldn't accidentally fall off their grandmother and aunt's backs.

They did just as Kate said and quickly got across the train tracks. All of the wolves were standing off the side of the tracks, beside a bush, except for one of them. That was when Garth noticed who was missing.

"Where's Fleet?" Garth said suddenly.

Claudette started screaming. Her unstable mate, Fleet, was missing! Well, missing was not exactly the right word for it. He was still at the center of the train tracks, sitting on his butt. Not that any of these twelve wolves knew about it, but his thoughts of Candy's death had come back to him. He had started blaming himself about Candy's death before he had started running south along the tracks again. Just as he had started running again, Fleet thought he heard a loud, earsplitting whistling sound. No, he _did_ hear it. Then he saw bright lights coming toward him, and the train tracks started shaking. Fleet took off at full speed, but he was not fast enough to outrun a train. It did not seem like the train was going to stop for him, even if it could.

"What is going on?" Terra screamed.

There were all sorts of loud noises where the group of wolves was, too. It all began when some sort of white wood board rising out of the way of the tracks. It went straight up along a small building with a window on the side. There was a man inside it, but he seemed be oblivious to the wolves just a foot-and-a-half away from him. The group of wolves panicked when they saw the flashing lights on a metal post at the end of the tracks. They heard the loud sirens blaring as the lights flashed, and then the same earsplitting whistling Fleet heard. All of this happened just as Fleet was coming into view. There was a speeding train behind the brown wolf. Fleet was screaming with horror as he ran. The train was catching up with Fleet faster than he could get away from it. Everyone was looking on in horror. The train would run him over within a few minutes if he did not...

"Jump, Fleet!" screamed Kate. "You have to jump off the tracks!"

"Fleet!" screamed Stinky.

"Fleet, you have to jump off the side of the tracks!" Claudette screamed.

"What will I do then?" Fleet screamed back at them.

"Just jump! Jump, Fleet! Jump!" Magril was screaming, too.

Then they heard an unpleasant sound from tracks, as if the train hit something.

"FLEET!" Claudette screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Claudette, no!" Humphrey cried, as several wolves had to pull Claudette off the train tracks. They got her off the tracks not a moment too soon. The train cam speeding by just as Claudette and the wolves that saved her fell flat on their backs in the grass. Still, the man in the booth had not seen the wolves yet.

"Blood!" gasped Kate, in horror. "So much blood!"

That was not all the wolves saw on the train as it went by. Blood had not just stained the train, but it chunks of gore had also splattered it. There was what looked like Fleet's entrails, a small amount of them, plastered on the side of the train. They noticed all the gore on the side of the train as it sped by them.

The ten wolves and the two puppies saw Fleet now that the train had passed by them. Well, they saw what little was left of him that him that had not been splattered all over the front and the sides of the train. On the tracks, it was nothing more than blood, gore, and pieces of flesh and bone, of all different sizes, all over. Fleet's blood was dripping off the boards that made up the track into the water below it.

"Fleet!" Claudette wailed. "No! Not Fleet! NO!"

"Claudette, don't!" gasped Kate, as her daughter attempted to get back on the tracks. She wanted to see Fleet again, even though there was very little of him left to see. None of her mate's remains was recognizable. That train destroyed Fleet's body, making into an unrecognizable mess. What Kate shouted at her daughter next provoked Claudette to stop. "You can't do anything to help Fleet. He's gone!"

Claudette just stared with a blank expression as she sat there in the grass, on her butt, with her left leg stretched out in front of her.

"All we can do now is get to the gas station!" said Humphrey. "It's just over there, across the parking lot. You will be safe there and that is all Fleet would want for you. He would want you and the rest of us to be safe, and we will be inside that gas station."


	21. Finally, the Gas Station

**Chapter 20**

**Finally, the Gas Station**

Claudette was weeping and repeatedly whispering Fleet's name to herself as the group of twelve wolves crossed the parking lot the gas station. Everyone was silent after what happened to Fleet only minutes ago. Fleet had blacked out when he thought about Candy again, and when he came to, a train had been coming toward him. Fleet did not make it very far before the train destroyed his body, splattering him all over the tracks.

Although they both felt bad for Claudette, now a widow, and for Fleet, Stinky and Mica were still thinking about what they had said to each other just before Fleet died.

Stinky had said, "I can make you feel warm very good," implying that he wanted to mate with her, even if it would not get her pregnant for two reasons. First, Mica was already pregnant with Stinky's young, and therefore, could not mate to have more puppies. Not that she would be able to anyway, if her expectations proved to be correct in the spring. Females of the species gray wolf could give birth to a maximum of fourteen puppies, and that was what Mica was expecting to have, because of how healthy she was. Secondly, if she were not pregnant, Mica would not be able to get pregnant now anyway. She was not in heat; wolves had to be in heat to get pregnant. Otherwise, they can mate all they want, and the female would not get pregnant.

Mica, on the other hand, had not implied that she wanted to mate with Stinky but to blow him, when she had said, "Don't worry. I'll put whatever you want in my muzzle," and then later added, "Sucky, sucky, Stinky." Stinky had already pointed it out earlier, but Mica had never blown him before. They had only had sexual contact once, and that was when thy mated. Stinky wanted to know what it felt like, and Mica wanted to know what his organ and fluids would taste like. Both Stinky and Mica wanted it in her mouth, to have her suck out in, and swallow whatever came out.

As Stinky and Mica slipped away, unnoticed, around the side of the gas station, Stinky was expecting to his mate to suck him off, while Mica had more than just that planned for her mate. If he was going to feel going, then so would she. Mica could always do things to him with her muzzle and her tongue later, but to humor him, she would start with that before she did what _she_ wanted to do. Stinky and Mica had mated in the proper way wolves mated, which some called the "doggy style" position. It struck wolves as ironic that that was the name of the position, considering how wolves were a type of dog. Maybe that was why everyone called the position "doggy style," because that was how wolves naturally mated. Except for a few she-wolves, including Claudette, Lilly, and Candy, who had rode their mates when they got pregnant.

That was what Mica was secretly planning to do to Stinky after she made him expect that she was going to blow him. She had never rode a male before, and wanted to know how different it felt. Mica also knew that a female never rode Stinky before—he never had a girlfriend or a mate before Mica—but he probably wanted to know what it felt like to be rode.

_He probably does not know what it feels like to get his dick sucked_, Mica thought. She tried not to laugh at that thought. She would change that one day. Mica doubted there was not one male half of a couple that had not received a blowjob, other than Stinky. _Yet..._she thought sleazily.

Stinky and Mica still remembered the day they met each other. Wolves from the Eastern and the Western pack had been hunting caribou when some wolves from the Southern Pack joined in. Mica, her parents, and little brother had been among them. They also remembered how Claws had yelled at Stinky to pay attention when Mica's beauty had distracted him. The males, even the females, of the Southern Pack had agreed that Mica was the most beautiful she-wolf in the Southern Pack, and that she deserved that title.

Mica had the shiniest coat of fur of any wolf Stinky had ever seen in his life. It was even shinier than Claudette's fur, and his mother's fur. Mica was a gray wolf, in color and species, just like Stinky. She had the most beautiful curves on her body he had ever seen. Mica's curves accentuated—emphasized—the size of her butt and her breasts—the front of her body, that is, not the organ on her belly that puppies drank her milk from. Stinky had thought she had big both to begin with, and her hips made them both seem so much better. Back to her fur, it was not gray like Humphrey or Stinky's fur coat, but more a mixture of gray and white. She was might lighter than any gray wolf he had seen before, including his elderly grandmother, Winston. Then there was Mica's eyes—_Oh, her eyes!_ Stinky thought now. _Those eyes alone can turn you on!_ Mica had the most beautiful eyes Stinky had ever seen in a female, and Stinky had seen plenty of them as dates at Moonlight Howls. None of them had the eyes, fur coat, hips or breasts like Mica did, however.

Mica's name came from a mineral that the color of her beautiful eyes resembled. Mica, the mineral, was an amber color, and that was the color of Mica's, the wolf, eyes. Mica's eyelashes were more accentuated than the eyelashes of most she-wolves were. There was only one other wolf who had eyelashes as accentuated as Mica—that wolf was Lilly.

It was easy to understand why her beauty had distracted him when their packs had been hunting caribou together. Stinky had just reached the adolescent stage of his life at this time, and had started taking an interest in females. He had known Mica was the one female meant for him as soon as he laid his eyes on her for the first time. Mica's hunting skills were almost equal, if not equal, to the hunting skills of his mother, Kate. No, he had thought, her hunting skills are better than his own mother's skills.

Stinky remembered how fluid of movements Mica had demonstrated then. How she moved from hiding place to hiding place without spooking the caribou or the crows and ravens that followed the caribou herds around. Mica was about as agile as a fox was smart. Moreover, foxes were very agile, too. A wolf could not even catch one if he or she tried. Well, maybe Mica could, because she seemed to move just like a fox, Stinky thought. If Kate had been there to see Mica on that hunt, she probably would have been jealous.

During their hunt, things had gone well until one of the Southern Beta wolves spooked the flock of crows and ravens into flight. Consequently, the caribou were spooked because the crows and ravens had been, and a stampede ensued. All of the wolves had made it to the sides of the canyon except for one of them—Mica. Stinky remembered hearing that beauty of a wolf screaming for someone to help her, and all those other wolves saying there was nothing that no one could do anything to save her.

However, Stinky and Claws did not heed the other Southern wolves' warnings, and they took off after the caribou herd. If Scar had been there, he would have gone with them too. Claws had called them all cowards before she took off with Stinky. If there was anything they could do to save Mica's life, they had at least wanted to try. If she did not make it, at least someone had tried to save her! That had been Stinky and Claws's reasoning for going while all those fools just looked, doubting any of them would return.

Working together, Stinky and Claws saved Mica just before the caribou herd would have trampled Mica to death. Mica was a small wolf, and she would not have lasted, unlike Kate. Although Mica had been able to keep her distance, that had changed when she stubbed her paw on a rock, and landed flat on her belly. She had screamed as the herd came closer. Mica would have died if it was not for what Stinky and Claws did next. They had run out from the side of the valley, and tackled Mica to the other side. Remarkably, the worst injury any one suffered was the bruises on Mica's paw from stubbing it on that rock. She had been able to walk away from the scene once Stinky and Claws helped her up.

Afterward, Mica had gone to the Western Territory to find Stinky and Claws to thank them for saving her life. In addition to that, Mica asked Stinky if he would be her date to that night's Moonlight Howl. He accepted, and they would be married to each other a week later. They had been the youngest couple at the time. Not many wolves married until they were adults, let alone young adolescents. Some wolves had said that it was not really a marriage until they were older, but just a boy and girlfriend relationship. The reality was that they had officially married each other, but they would not mate until the last year of their adolescence.

* * *

Mica seductively smiled at Stinky. "Now, dear, lay on your back," she instructed. Stinky did so immediately. He was ready for what was going to happen; he could not wait.

"Good boy," laughed Mica. She got down on all fours and put her muzzle between Stinky's legs. Mica stuck out her tongue and started licking his organ. Mica stimulated Stinky with her tongue. It was rough, but that roughness caused all the pleasure. Her licks alone gave Stinky feelings of extreme pleasure. Stinky closed his eyes; the pleasure was too great. He could not see what Mica was doing, but he could feel Mica putting his reproductive organ in her muzzle. He felt her tongue wrap around it. Mica started bobbing her head up and down slowly, resulting in some moans from Stinky. He still had his eyes closed. This was the best thing he had ever felt since he mated with Mica. Mica's tongue had got him wet with her saliva, and that made this act of love feel so much better. The whole thing was in Mica's muzzle; she could not get it any father in.

Mica only bobbed her head up and down for a few more seconds before she stopped suddenly. The thrusting of her head and her sucking on Stinky's organ ceased, and she removed her head from his crotch. Stinky opened his eyes and looked at Mica with a confused expression on his face. Why had she stopped sucking him when he had not climaxed in her mouth yet?

"Mica?" Stinky asked. "Is something wrong?"

"No," she giggled, "things are going to get so much better for you, my dear. I put in my mouth, but that is not what I came here to do to you alone."

"But, but," Stinky stuttered, "I want it in your-"

Mica silenced her mate by touching his muzzle with her right paw; that was her dominant paw. She stroked Stinky's organ, thrusted it with her paw once, and then climbed on top of him. He gasped. Was Mica really going to be in control of him when they mated? That was not what Stinky thought of when wolves mated—the male was supposed to be behind the female. She was not supposed to be on top of him. Was she? he wondered. Mica aligned herself with his organ, and let it go inside her.

As Stinky just stared at her with a shocked look at her face, Mica started riding him, lifting her body up and down on his organ. She had her paws on Stinky's chest to keep her balance. Stinky quickly got used to the feeling of a female riding him. It actually felt better than how he had mated with Mica, in the "doggy style" position. Stinky's tongue was hanging on, and he was drooling as he watched Mica hop up and down on his organ. She was moaning in pleasure from the start, but Stinky had just started when Mica increased the speed she rode him. Stinky could not handle this much pleasure, and that was what he enjoyed about it. The pleasure was so much greater than when she had been sucking him that he could not keep his eyes open.

Still with his eyes closed, Stinky wrapped his arms around Mica's waste, and put his paws on her butt. It helped with Mica riding him. This action increased the pleasure for both of them by pushing in up and down on Mica, in addition to her hopping on him. Mica was moaning even louder, and so was Stinky. Now, Mica felt wetness inside of her. It was not Stinky's climax; it was just an early release of fluid. That was common with arousal of any kind, and mating. The other wetness was not Stinky's climax—that was far off, right now—but Mica's climax. Her fluids were all over Stinky's reproductive organ, which was obviously hard. It had got hard when Mica had sucked on it before she had mounted him. This just made it so much harder, which was what they both wanted. Mica pushed Stinky to the ground so he was not setting up anymore, but he still had his paws on her butt as she continued to ride him. Mica placed her paws on his chest again.

This was the most passionate Mica had ever gotten with him, because she was in complete control. Stinky attempted further arousal his mate rubbing his paws around Mica's butt—which seemed so much better now that she was on top of him. Mica was rubbing her paws across Stinky's chest, which further aroused him as much as Stinky rubbing her butt further aroused her. Stinky had been crying out Mica's name, not concerned at all if any of the others herd him. Honestly, Stinky and Mica were sure that the others had gone in the gas station before she started riding him. The other wolves probably assumed they were exploring outside, to see if they could find anything important, so they probably figured that Stinky and Mica could just catch up later. They had not seen, heard, or smelled zombies when they arrived, and they had done a quick search around the building, as a group, for the undead, and found none. For that reason, Stinky and Mica were not thinking about anything but making love. They had nothing that worried them. At least when Stinky filled Mica with his fluids, they would relieve some tension. Then again, this whole acting of Mica riding him was relieving tension by itself.

"Oooh...Mica!" Stinky cried, in pleasure, when she slammed her hips down on his organ. Then she started hopping on it again, only at a faster speed than before. Mica let out more of her own fluids all over Stinky's crotch. All the while she had been riding him, Mica had also be rubbing Stinky's chest. Stinky had gave up with guiding Mica alone by having his paws on her butt, and just had his front legs off to the side. He was letting Mica have complete control of him, which was what she wanted. Of course, Mica had not minded that he had been rubbing her butt as she fucked him.

"Mica! Mica!" Stinky gasped urgently, as she continued riding him, even more passionately. It seemed that the passion with which Mica rode him had been increasing as time went by. "Oooh...Mica! I-I'm gonna...I'm gonna..."

Stinky was in too much pleasure to finish his sentence. His climax was nearing, and Mica reacted by increase, yet again, the speed at which she hopped on his dick. The only thing that kept her balanced was having her paws on Stinky's chest, which effectively pinned him down. Not that he minded, of course.

"Ooooh...MICA!" Stinky suddenly screamed as he climaxed. Mica could feel his thick, warm fluids fill her womb to the brim. She received more than she had been expecting; the sticky fluid was leaking out of her, and onto Stinky's body, as well as the ground.

Stinky was right. He did know how to make her feel warm. He had done that, and so much more. Mica was pleased that he had allowed her to do this just for the pleasure. The only disappointing thing about this was that Mica could not get pregnant again for two reasons. One, she was not in heat. Again, she-wolves can only get pregnant when they were in heat. Secondly, Mica was already pregnant, so she could not get pregnant with any more puppies. Again, Mica was expecting to give birth to a full litter of fourteen puppies next spring.

Mica smiled down at Stinky, not even acknowledging that his fluids were leaking out of her womb. She had been about to tell Stinky she loved him when a look of pure horror came over her mate's face. With his drooling tongue still hanging out, he was not staring at Mica but something behind her. (Wolves' tongues hang out when they were in pleasure, normally as they are mating or after they mated.) Mica's tongue was hanging out of her mouth too. Her salvia was getting all over Stinky's face and chest.

"What's wrong, Stinky?" Mica mocked him. "Did I hop on your dick too hard, my love?" She giggled sexually, as she thought about how Stinky's semen could possibly taste. She heard her friends claim it was salty like caribou meat. If that were the case, then Mica would suck him off eventually. Mica loved the taste of caribou meat, and if she could drink something that had a similar flavor, then why would she not do it?

"Get off! Get off!" Stinky suddenly screamed at Mica.

"Well!" Mica gasped. "Maybe I won't ride you again, if you hated it that much!"

"No! Not that!" Stinky screamed again. "There's a zombie behind you!"

"WHAT!" It was Mica's turn to scream. Her head spun around to find herself locking eyes with an undead wolf. Sure enough, there it was. There was an undead wolf, with a broken back, crawling across the ground toward Mica. Before she could dismount Stinky, or move in any way, Mica felt teeth tearing into her left hind leg. Stinky and Mica screamed as they saw the undead wolf tear out a chunk of flesh from her leg.

* * *

"That's Stinky and Mica!" gasped Magril, when a scream came from around the gas station.

"Stay here," Kate instructed them. "Garth, Humphrey, come with me. The rest of you, wait _by the door_. That is an order."

Kate, Humphrey and Garth ran out of the gas station, as the other wolves watched on it terror. They could still hear Stinky and Mica screaming. The three wolves dashed around the eastern corner of the gas station, where the heard the commotion coming from

What they saw shocked them. Not just because Mica was on top of Stinky, and there was a white fluid all over both of the wolves. They did not really care right now. The more important thing was the undead wolf chewing a hole in Mica's leg!

"Garth! Grab that rock, hurry!" Kate screamed.

"Why?"

"Just do it!" Humphrey said.

Garth grabbed the rock. He did not know what to do.

"Crush that zombie's skull in!" As soon as Kate gave this order, Garth had dropped the rock on the undead wolf's skull. It ceased moving.

"You have to save Mica!" Stinky was screaming as they helped her off him. "I don't want to lose her."

"N-nothing can be done to save her," Garth said darkly. Stinky saw that Garth was eyeing the rock he used to kill the undead wolf.

"No! No!" wailed Stinky. "You can't do that! I don't want to lose her or our puppies!"

"You're wrong, Garth," Kate said, almost as darkly. "There is something we can do, but I don't know if you'll like it, Stinky."

"What is it? I will do anything to save Mica. Anything!" he cried.

"You remember the knife in the backpack?" Stinky nodded. "To save Mica, we'll have to cut off her leg at the knee with it, if we aren't too late already."

What Kate meant was, one bitten, they could only save him or her from full-blown infection if an undead wolf bit or scratched him or her on a limb. That was just legs, in the case of wolves. However, they had to do it within five minutes of infection, or there would be no hope. Mica had already lost almost two minutes of that time. If they did sever her leg, they would be cutting that infection threshold close, or they would be too late...


	22. Taking Care of Mica

**Chapter 21**

**Taking Care of Mica**

"Lay her down on the floor!" Kate shouted. "Quickly!"

"What happened to Mica?" gasped Lilly.

"We'll explain that later," said Humphrey. "Just get us that knife out of the bag!" One of the puppies came running with the knife. It was Danny; he had the handle of the knife in his muzzle.

Kate took the knife from the puppy's small muzzle. She held it in her right paw as best she could, and began to cut into Mica's leg. (They had already broken the bone with a rock, so it would be easier to cut.) The bite was low on her leg, near the ankle. Everyone who knew what was going on was thankful for that. It would mean that Kate still had a chance to cut off the infected leg. They had broken it at the knee, and Kate was cutting, as best a wolf could use a knife, just above it. It was not easy for a wolf to do this. Wolves did not have thumbs, so it was difficult for Kate to keep a steady hold on the knife's handle. The fact that she was shaking—because her _pregnant_ daughter-in-law was at risking of full-blown infection with the zombie virus—did not help matters any.

Mica's life depended on Kate's right paw and the knife it was holding, and that paw was shaking worse than any other part of Kate's body! Kate was silently cursing and scolding her paw to stop shaking. She was telling herself to calm down, just to get this done! Mica suffered that bite from the undead wolf a little less than four minutes ago. That meant she only had about a minute, maybe a little longer, left before cutting off her leg would be a vain act. Kate knew from her nightmare, which seemed to be more and more like a premonition than a dream, that if someone did not cut off an infected limb within five minutes of initial infection that the victim was doomed to reanimate as a zombie in about a day's time.

As Kate was just finishing cutting off Mica's leg, she was thinking about a mental timetable she had remembered from her nightmare.

It went as follows:

**Hour 1:** Pain and discoloration (brown-purple) of the infected area. Immediate clotting of the wound (provided the infection came from a wound).

** Hour 5:** Fever (99-103 degrees F), chills, slight dementia, vomiting, acute pain in the joints.

** Hour 8:** Numbing of extremities and infected area, increased fever (103-106 degrees F), increased dementia, loss of muscular coordination.

**Hour 11:** Paralysis in the lower body, overall numbness, slowed heart rate.

**Hour 16:** Coma.

**Hour 20:** Heart stoppage. Zero brain activity

**Hour 23:** Reanimation.

If she knew how to write, Kate would put this damn thing down on paper, and carry it everywhere she goes. It was not easy remembering all this information, but somehow Kate did it.

"Okay," said Kate, "it's done." She kicked the now severed and infected half of Mica's leg out the way. She would throw into the freezer so it would not rot. If it rotted around them, disease could spread. It was too cold for the bacteria that rotted flesh to survive in a freezer meant for keeping meat fresh. Kate would put it by the steel door in the freezer, so it would be away from the food source in there.

"Why did you do that?" Mica screamed almost as loud as she had when Garth broke her leg at the knee, and when Kate cut it off.

"You won't need that anymore, dear." Kate tried to sound as sympathetic as she possibly could by saying that. It was not easy to sound sympathetic using those words in reference to something like a leg, but she did as best she could.

The shocking thing was that Mica's wound was, oddly, not bleeding that much. Regardless, Runt and Stinky were licking the stump where he leg had bed. Mica was lucky that her wound was not bleeding too much, as strange as that was. Normally, someone would normally burn such a wound to prevent it from bleeding, but there was not any safe way to do that. Moreover, what did a wolf know about fire and burning a wound? Nevertheless, it seemed they would not need to. However, Mica would need to rest all day and all night until her wound clotted up. Unfortunately, there was no comfortable place for Mica to sleep downstairs.

"Where can we take her?" asked Stinky. His heart was still beating faster than it should. Not because he had just had sex with Mica—well, that was the secondary reason now—but because he just witnessed an undead wolf mutilate his mate's leg. Moreover, if that was not bad enough, he had to witness a rock break Mica's leg, and then watch his mother sever his mate's leg. Something hit him like a brick now. Stinky's leg had not been very far from Mica's leg. The undead wolf could have been him just as easily as it bit Mica. He wished it had been him. It was going to be pure hell for Mica to travel now, with just three-and-a-half legs to walk on. Of course, she would not be the first wolf to have three legs. However, could somebody like Mica really do it? She was so sensitive. Could Mica adapt to three legs rather than four?

Stinky was in shock, somewhat. One minute, Mica had been fucking him. The next minute, an undead wolf was mutilating her leg while he was still stuck inside her! Stinky had never been that scared before in his life. Both he and Mica had been so close to death that it was like living a horror story. That undead wolf could have just as easy mutilated his leg instead of Mica's leg. As he and Runt stopped licking the lightly bleeding wound, Stinky realized he was shaking.

"We'll take Mica upstairs," said Kate. "I remember this gas station from my nightmare, right down to the owner being dead outside." Just like in nightmare, they had found Max, the owner of the gas station, dead in the parking lot. There was a bullet in his head and a .38 caliber revolver in his hand. Max's shotgun was still above the front door of the gas station, which the wolves had barricaded up with the heaviest things they could find. Everyone but Kate and Stinky had taken part when Kate had been cutting Mica's leg off.

"Why upstairs?" asked Stinky. He was crying, even though there was a great chance of Mica surviving now. Stinky could not bear to see his mate like this so suddenly, after they had a good time with each other.

"There are beds upstairs," his mother explained. "If we can _carefully_ carry Mica upstairs, she can lay on the bed. Of course, she will need to have her bad leg stretched out behind her. Otherwise, she could cause it to bleed worse than it had been. She is the luckiest wolf I have ever seen. When the wound has sealed up all the way, then you can lay on it. You won't have to worry about it bleeding then, Mica."

* * *

It took all of the male wolves, plus Princess and Kate, to carry Mica up the stairs. Thankfully, Max, most likely, had left the door open, or it would have been even more a pain to get upstairs. After they had Mica situated in one of the bedrooms, the first one they saw with a door open, everyone went to rest in the other rooms with their mates. Claudette and Magril went with Princess and Runt, because Fleet and Liam were dead. They had invited her and Magril to use the same room as them. It had two beds in it, unlike the others. Obviously, this building was not just a simple gas station. Max must have lived here and/or used it as a hotel, for extra income. At least that would help the wolves out.

It was just Kate, Humphrey, Stinky, and Mica in this bedroom. They were going to stay in here, even if it meant Kate and Humphrey would have to sleep on the floor. They did not care about that. There were beds meant for dogs downstairs in the store section of the gas station. They could just drag two of those beds up here, and sleep in them.

"Mother," Stinky said in a guilty voice. "You aren't made that Mica and I mated...are you?"

"No," said Kate, "I'm not. I am just happy you and Mica are okay. I mean, did any of us really know that there had been a lone zombie in the air?"

"I didn't," said Humphrey. "I'd asked everyone after that happened, and they didn't know it either."

"We'd made sure before we did anything," Stinky whimpered. "I just feel bad about mating with Mica outside. We should have done it in one of these bedrooms instead of out there. I mean, I should have known better than let her ride me when we both knew that the outdoors was the most dangerous place to be now."

"Don't blame yourself, Stinky," said Mica. There was still some pain in her voice. "Fleet blamed himself constantly about Candy, and look what happened...it was the death of him. I do not want your worry of me to be the death of you. I need you now, more than ever, my love."

"You aren't mad at me are you, Mica?" Stinky was still whimpering like a frightened puppy.

"No. Why would I be mad at you?" she rhetorically asked. "You warmed about the zombie. That shows you still care about me. Now get up here, you." She patted the spot next to her with her front leg.

"Get up there, son," said Kate.

Slowly, and nervously, Stinky crawled onto the bed, then threw himself down next to Mica, then put his head down. He looked up at her with sad puppy eyes, as he cried.

"Oh, my, Stinky," sighed Mica. "I don't have any reason to be mad at you. Lift your head up, dear." Mica licked him across the top of his head; that calmed him down. Stinky lifted his head up to Mica's level.

Mica smiled at him, seemingly ignoring that she no longer had four legs.

* * *

**Author's note:** That timetable of the symptoms after being infected by a zombie comes from the book "The Zombie Survival Guide." I did not write it. Max Brooks did.


	23. An Alpha Dies Alone

**Chapter 22**

**An Alpha Dies Alone**

Garth came back to the bedroom he and Lilly were sleeping in. Although it was just them, they did not intend to do anything to each other. After what happened to Mica, they were afraid to. Mica just mated with Stinky, for the pleasure, and then an undead wolf bit her! It seemed unlikely, for obvious reasons, but Lilly and Garth were afraid to do anything sexual to each other. They were afraid because they would almost expect an undead wolf to attack them as soon as, for example, Lilly started blowing Garth, or whatever.

"How is Mica doing?" Lilly asked, forgetting about anything sexual she had had on her mind.

"She's good," said Garth. "Okay, great, when you consider what happened to her."

"How is Stinky taking it?"

"He's a mess," Garth said briefly.

"How is a mess?" Lilly cocked her head at Garth.

"I mean, he's blaming himself for what happened to Mica," Garth explained, "just because he let her mate with him outside instead of in here. He thinks it is entirely his fault."

"B-but, none of us had found any zombie wolves when she searched around the building!" Lilly said, shocked. "It couldn't have been in the area the whole time. It had to have shown up when Stinky and Mica were mating! How else could you explain it?"

"You can't, dear," Garth sighed. "I think, for what happened outside, we have seen the best result possible."

Garth noticed that Lilly was shaking.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"I-I need to go relieve myself," Lilly cried.

"There's something humans call a 'bathroom' down the hallway. I checked it out with Humphrey. It's safe."

"What?" Lilly gasped.

"I know, I know. You don't want to use what humans use, but it's not easy to get outside," said Garth. "The doors that we can open are barricaded, and it would take too long. The one door we did not barricade, the metal one in the freezer, is too difficult for us to open. I'm sorry, Lilly, but you don't really have a choice."

"Fine," scoffed Lilly. "I may not be back for several minutes. I _really_ need to go."

Lilly jumped off the bed, and exited the bedroom. They always left the bedroom doors open because, after a search that could not be any more thorough than it had been. The wolves knew that there was no chance in hell of undead anything being upstairs. Obviously, they had made sure they locked both of the doors at the top, and the bottom of the stairs. They did not want anything undead or living getting up here that. If they had locked the door, human looters would just move on. Obviously, they would know the owner kept nothing important upstairs. All they would want to take was in the store area. Luckily, the wolves did not need any of that. In the wolves' minds, the important stuff was either upstairs or in the freezer. Moreover, what kind of human would steal a bunch of food that was like icicles? An ignorant one was the kind of human who would!

Garth had not told Lilly, or anyone else, this, but he had been feeling what could be best described as sick for some time. He experienced these symptoms. The symptoms were numerous.

The first and the most common symptom was shortness of breath. Garth had the greatest endurance of any wolf in Jasper, so he had no idea why he would be short of breath. Garth had to let out a breath for a while so he could actually get the breath in, rather than just breathing, as he should. The truth was Garth _could not_ breathe properly. It confused Garth, and made him wish that Candy and Eve were still alive. No one else knew anything about health ailments. Either of them could diagnose him and even treat his problem before something bad happened to him. Garth did not want to end up like Eve, dying because he could have a bad heart or something like that. Garth was young. Why on Earth would his heart be bad? He was obsessed with fitness! He was as healthy as any wolf could be!

Garth was experiencing three of those many physiological—relating to way a living body operates—symptoms right now. He was also experiencing light-headedness, nausea, and fatigue in this moment. Garth could not stand up without feeling dizzy, no matter how slow he got up. He was sick to his stomach, and felt like throwing everything that was in his stomach. Lastly, Garth was so tired that even sleeping did not help. Garth had sleep every night, and they were good nights' sleep, yet he felt like had had not sleep in days. This was literally the worst Garth had ever felt in his life.

As he lay on this pillow—that did nothing to make him feel better, despite its softness—on his back, Garth just realized that he had broke out in a sweat. It was a cold sweat. Cold sweats only occurred if someone had a nervous feeling that made them sweat, rather than physical exertion. That was not all of the physical symptoms Garth was experience, unfortunately. Garth had the most hellish jaw and tooth pain. That was really all that could describe how bad his mouth her. He felt like someone had busted his just with a brick and as if all of his teeth were rotting. It had felt better when he accidentally bit a stone instead of a caribou's leg on a hunt. Next, Garth had an extreme pain in his pack; he felt like someone was cutting into his spinal column, it was so bad. Then he had a stomach pain that was the cause of his nausea, as well as making it worse.

Next, there was not a discomfort in one but all four of his legs. It was not painful when he walked, but uncomfortable from his paw pads to his shoulder blades, and everything in between. It made Garth hate walking, and wanted to avoid doing anything that involved using his legs. He would not want someone to lick his paw pads, thinking they would help the pain! It would make his pain worse! In addition, he had a terrible pain in his chest. It had begun as a mild discomfort that started, went away, and came back. That happened repeatedly. Specifically, Garth felt like he had a lot of pressure on his chest, in addition to outright pain of his chest.

Lastly, in the physical category, he could feel his heart palpitating. The beats of his heart were either racing or irregular. They varied with each time his earth started palpitating. He could never predict what would happen the next time this happened to his heart. All of these symptoms were causing Garth to have a sense of impending doom. Not just sensing impending doom about what would happen to him but just that sense in general. Garth had a bad feeling about everything relating to his life and anything that related to his relatives and his friends. He had a fear that something bad would happen to them, whether the undead wolves killed them, or they died like Fleet or Eve, to a train or natural causes.

Garth let out a low scream that sounded more like a snarl—the kind that was unique to wolves. He felt a crushing pain in his chest so bad that he could not even let out a proper scream. The pain he felt in his chest now was so bad that it caused him to buckle over, groaning in agony. Both of his left legs went numb in this moment, as well as his face. His left legs and the left side of his face were all experiencing a tingling and pain.

Garth started gasping for air; he felt like someone was choking him or had stuck something like a rock in his mouth that suffocated him. A more accurate way to describe that would Garth felt like someone was choking him out, while covering his mouth and nose at the same time. Garth's face went blue quickly. When someone's face went blue as quick as his, that made he was experiencing a sudden bleed out of his braining. Meaning not that he was bleeding on the brain but there was a sudden reverse in the direction of blood flow to his brain. Blood was flowing away from his brain, and too its source—his heart. The speed at which his heart now increased so suddenly that he felt like something was bursting in his chest. Maybe something had; Garth felt like he was internally bleeding.

The flow of blood to Garth's brain was so low that he went unconscious. He fell flat on his back, no longer breathing. He had been gasping, but even that stopped by the time his back landed on the bed. Garth's eyes rolled back in his head until only the back of his eyes were visible. His mouth fell open, and then he went into a coma. Just as quickly as that coma happened, Garth's heart stopped beating, and he lost all control of his body. Garth was choking on blood he failed to flow out of his mouth, being on his back, rather than relieving himself all over the bed involuntarily. Of course, not much got out of his mouth, because he was on his back. Garth choked on his own blood until he was gone. There was more blood in his stomach than going to his brain when he died.

* * *

**Author's note:** Before I have any one asking how I described the feeling of a heart attack, I googled "what does a heart attack feel like" until I found websites that the symptoms of one and described what it felt like for a person who had one. I wasn't going to write an inaccurate chapter. About anything that would seem unlikely to know without researching is something I researched right. (Including things about all the sexual references I included right down to the she-wolves talking about what things taste like. I wanted as few inaccuracies, to the real word, as possible, even if this is based on an animated film.)


	24. A Terrible Discovery

**Chapter 23**

**A Terrible Discovery**

Lilly came out of the bathroom after not just relieving herself, about as possibly good as a wolf could on in a human bathroom, but also after touching herself for several minutes. She had a white fluid on her paw, because she had rubbed her crotch to relieve stress until she had an orgasm all over her hand. Lilly was unaware of what went on after she left Garth alone in the bedroom they called their own, as was everyone else. Lilly and Garth had been the only wolves awake when she had gone to the bathroom, and when he had his heart attack. Lilly could hear everyone else snoring quietly, except for Kate. Kate was naturally a louder snorer than other wolves, but at least she was not so much louder that she woke up other wolves.

Lilly still had her bodily fluids on her paw because she wanted Garth to know she had been touching herself. Maybe he would want a blowjob from her, maybe even what some wolves called "deep throating," when an she-wolf took the entirety of a male wolf's reproductive organ in her mouth. Some males claimed that they though "their mate was trying to swallow their dick," it was so far in his mate's muzzle. Well, maybe it wolves should call it "deep muzzling" because of the few times Lilly did it to Garth, she never even got it as far as her throat. She had just filled up all of her muzzle with his reproductive organ in the past, but never got it in her throat. Well, she never got his Garth's organ in her throat, just the fluids that gushed out of it.

Lilly would have a surprise for Garth when she got back to that bedroom, whether she blew him or not. In the bathroom, after she felt satisfied by how much she had touched herself, Lilly found clothes in the bathroom. Humans called the specific articles of clothing she found "bra," "sunglasses," "wigs," and "panties." Lilly had only known how to get that all over her because she had seen a tattered magazine lying on the floor of someone wearing the same clothes. As for the wig, it was common sense to put a wig on. It was a strapless bra like the one Kate had woke up wearing so many years ago, when she and Humphrey had been in the back of someone's truck. Humphrey had put all that—the bra, the wig, and the sunglasses—on Kate while she had been sleeping. Everything that Lilly was wearing was the same colors as what Kate had worn then. The bra was a dull pink, the wig was brown like Kate's fur, and the sunglasses were black. The panties were the same color as the bra. Whoever had been living up here must have left in a hurry if she left some of her clothes behind. Maybe the owner had panicked when she heard a gun go off—when Max killed himself because he'd obviously suffered a bite from the ground—and ran outside only to frightened off by the undead wolves. She was probably dead now, rather _undead_.

Lilly was sure that Garth would get so much of a hard on that he would beg Lilly to suck him off just to relieve it. Lilly was in a mood for getting a muzzle-full of semen. She was not in heat, but still. She just wanted to a good taste of that salty fluid tonight. Lilly was howling to herself in a low voice, so she would not wake anyone up, as she walked down the hallway. Her's and Garth's bedroom was at the opposite end of the hallway from the bathroom. Lilly's dirty mind was now on one thing: sex, specifically blowjobs. She was just in one her normal moods. Lilly always got like that after stressful events, even if she did not want to. She did not want to suck Garth off tonight, but she had so much of a feeling to do it that it would kill her, figuratively, if she did not. Lilly was no stranger to giving blowjobs to male wolves, especially Garth. Before she married anyone, many males found that out. Humphrey was one of them. She had given him one when Kate and Garth went off to howl with each other. Humphrey had not unexpected it, especially what Lilly did when he climaxed in her muzzle. She spit his body fluids all over Humphrey, hating the taste, and then walked away. Lilly thought that Garth's fluids tasted so much better Humphrey or anyone else she had sucked off before. She thought that their semen had always been so bitter that the taste was unbearable, and she spit it out in instinct. To Lilly, Garth's was more salty or sweet, depending on whether he ate caribou or fermented berries before she blew him.

The only time Lilly had ever swallowed a male wolf's semen was when Garth blew his load in her muzzle. Lilly attributed that to the better taste it had and that he was her true love. Garth was the only wolf who had ever seen Lilly's dirty side. She had once touched herself for Garth simply because she had wanted to entertain him. That was when Lilly had offered to show Garth around after the park rangers had taken Kate and Humphrey to Sawtooth Park in Idaho. She had teased him by taking her fluids and splashing it at Garth like water, as best should could. Lilly remembered getting it on Garth's face, and in his mouth. He had wanted so badly to eat her out on the spat, but had known that if someone came across them, it would have been bad for that. This had taken place when The Alpha males had forbidden any kind of love between wolves of different ranks. Not to mention that Lilly and Garth had been members of different packs then. Lilly was a Western wolf and Garth had been an Eastern wolf before pack law changed and they got married.

Lilly could feel wetness in the panties she was wearing just as she returned to the door of their bedroom. She knew that she just had another orgasm, this time not due to touching herself but her sexual memories and fantasies. Lilly quite often had orgasms at night, when she had wet dreams about Garth. (Princess used to have wet dreams about Runt, she had missed him so much when she had been a slave in Banff, but they had stopped now that they were together.) Lilly could feel her juices squishing against her private area as she entered the room.

Garth was lying on his back, just as Lilly had left him. Garth's appears appeared closed. He was silent. Lilly figured he was just sleeping. The almost horny she-wolf just made her way over to the bed, with the intention of giving Garth the best blowjob of his life. Lilly found it odd that Garth had not moved yet, or even acknowledged that she was back. Garth usually snored, but he was not now.

"Come on, Garth," Lilly giggled sexually. "Wake up so I can suck your di-" Lilly's voice stopped as soon as she looked over Garth's side. She let out a bloodcurdling scream. It was a good thing she had already relieved herself. She would have wet the panties she was wearing rather than orgasmed in her panties—again, that is—at the sight of Garth in this moment. Any feeling of excitement Lilly had had left her body; pure terror took that feeling's place just as quickly as the excitement had left her body and her expression.

"GARTH!" Lilly screamed again. She was staring at his dead body. His eyes were in the back of his head, not closed as she had thought at first. Blood was what filled Garth's muzzle. It kept coming and then going down his throat, as if something was fighting in his throat. Lilly had arrived now, as it happened. She did not hear him breathing. Lilly knew her mate was dead. "No... No..." Immediately, the largest tears Lilly ever cried formed in her eyes. They flowed down her face and landed on Garth's body.

Learning that Garth was dead saddened Lilly so much that all she could do was shed tears for him. Lilly just stood there like a statue, not acknowledging anything that had happened before. Not even her orgasm before she entered the room or the fact she was wearing a bikini, wig and sunglasses. Lilly had forget _everything_ she had done before entering the bedroom, right down to touching herself or having sexual thoughts about Garth. Lilly could not even bring herself to wail or scream with misery as her brain told her to. Lilly stood there for five whole minutes before she had any sort of reaction beyond tears.

Lilly screamed his name louder than she ever screamed before, and then threw herself over her mate's comatose body. As she wrapped her from legs around him, Lilly could not accept the fact that Garth was dead. She knew he had died alone, and that made her feel guilty. She had not even been there for her love when he died!

* * *

**Author's note:** Yeah, yeah. I know. Really sexual chapter, especially since it was about Lilly. My reason for that is I wanted to give some insight of how Lilly acted around Garth when she was in that kind of mood. As for her wearing that random bra and such she found, I just wanted to show a sillier side of Lilly. (And throw in reference to the original Alpha and Omega, even though panties had not been part of what Kate was wearing when she woke up in the back of that truck.)


	25. Leaving the Station

**Chapter 24**

**Leaving the Station**

"Lilly, what happened?" Kate shouted from the hallway. "We heard you screaming?"

Kate came running into the room, her mate, Humphrey, and their children, Claudette, Runt, and Stinky, behind her. The first thing they saw was Lilly, wearing a wearing, bra, sunglasses, and panties, not that they knew the names of any of those items. Their jaws hit the floor, as the figure of speech went, not literally. What on Earth had Lilly been doing in here? This did not expect why she had been screaming, and still was. However, when the five wolves looked to the bed, they saw way. They saw Garth's lifeless body just lying there in the middle of the bed, his eyes rolled back in his head, and some blood on his muzzle.

"I got my answer," Kate gasped, in a voice of disbelief and grief, "as much as it's not what I wanted..."

"W-what happened to Garth?" Claudette stammered.

"He seemed to be in good health the last time we saw him," Stinky whispered. "Did his health really deteriorate in a couple hours?"

"I don't want to think about it," Runt whimpered like a puppy. That was what he was at heart: a puppy. At least he was unless you angered him.

Kate was the only wolf that even had a minute chance of diagnosing Garth, even if he was dead. Kate did not have to do a long assessment of Garth's body to realize what had happened. All she had done was lay one of her ears up to Garth's chest, and listen to his heart. There was no beat.

Kate lifted her head up. "H-he...he had a heart attack," she gulped, swallowing her own salvia.

"What!" The group gasped in unison. They started at Kate with disbelief.

"How could a wolf so young have a heart attack?" Humphrey choked out these words.

"I don't know," wept Kate. She did not like Garth as a mate, at least when she was just an adolescent, but he was still one of her oldest friends. "I didn't even think wolves young as us could have heart attacks! At least, I couldn't imagine a wolf as healthy as Garth having a heart attack!"

"I know," cried Lilly. "All he did was worry about fitness, and exercise. I can't believe he had a bad heart." Lilly had taken the bra, panties, wig, and sunglasses off her body, no longer in a mood for silliness and sexuality. Just like Claudette and Magril, she was now a widow. How could this have happened? she wondered sadly, almost darkly. "You would think that Garth would have the best heart of any wolf in Jasper!" she added in a bawling voice.

"I just d-don't understand it, sister," Kate said. "It doesn't even make sense because of what you said."

"Should we tell the others tonight?" Stinky piped up.

"No," Kate said in a low, serious voice. "They are sleeping soundly. That has been ruined for all of us, but we shouldn't ruin a good thing for the rest of them with terrible news."

"Terrible isn't the word for it," muttered Humphrey.

"You're right," spat Kate. "It's not terrible news. It's shitty news!"

Everyone else gasped. It had been so long since they had heard Kate curse. The last time she had heard Kate curse was when she had called her dream, quote, and "a fucking nightmare." That was before the undead wolves overran Jasper. The truth was that their lives were becoming a fucking nightmare more and more each day. Their numbers were dropping like flies! There had been nineteen of them originally, but now there was just eleven wolves left. Moreover, two of the survivors were puppies, just as one of the deceased was a puppy. A puppy! Really? The undead had claimed the life of a puppy. Sam had not even had a chance to start his life before those undead wolves torn him to pieces.

"What will we do tonight?" asked Claudette.

"Get back to sleep, if you can," her mother sighed sadly. "We'll tell everyone else in the morning."

* * *

Morning came around. Kate, Humphrey, Lilly and their puppies slept about as well as they could, after learning Garth was dead. They called everyone out into the hallway.

Questions began spreading through the small group as soon as they saw Lilly drying. Kate, Humphrey, Claudette, Runt, and Stinky were all weeping.

"Quiet!" roared Princess. "Give them a chance to tell us, if you all really want to know what is wrong!"

Kate had agreed that she would do all the talking, unless one of them felt like they needed to speak. There probably would not be any reason for them to help their mother, or his mate, out.

"I have some terrible news to tell you all," cried Kate. Lilly let out a loud whimper. "Lilly...she found..." Kate stuttered. "...she found Garth dead last night." There was a gasp. It came from who had not known yet. "He suffered from a massive heart attack just after Lilly went to relieve herself. She found him dead when she got back."

"Oh no," gasped Mica. Although she only had three legs now, Mica had already learned how to stand on those three legs. She did not even need that missing half of a leg as long as she was careful. Of course, if she survived, it meant Mica would not be able to mate with Stinky again, not riding him at least. They had no idea how well the "doggy style" position would work. If it hurt Mica when they tried in the future, then mating would be completely out of the option for them. Nevertheless, all Stinky was worried about now was if having a leg cut off affected their puppies or not. Time would tell.

There was no longer a dry eye in the room.

"What on Earth do we do now?" asked Magril.

"I think it is time we leave the gas station," Kate announced, "after we bury Garth. Banff is not that far south from here. We can get there in two days if we leave now." Kate looked to one of her daughter's in law who concerned her. "Will you be up to it, Mica? Walking for four mornings straight?"

"You bet your tail I will be!" Mica said confidently. "I am great with just three-and-a-half legs. In fact, I seem to move around better with half a leg gone," she added.

"Good." Kate looked at her, wanting to smile at her, but she could not force herself to smile after learning Garth was dead. "I'm sorry. I just can't smile because of Garth."

"Don't worry, mother," Mica said. "I understand. Let's just go."

* * *

Only because they were worried about the risk of undead, the wolves held a quick funeral for Garth, including the usual mournful song—howl—then they left the parking lot of the gas station with the backpack full of thawed out food from the freezer. It was just enough for four days of travel for Terra and Danny. The rest of the wolves would hunt for their own food, except for Mica. Maybe she would. No one could expect what Mica would do.

_Next stop Banff_, thought Princess. _The biggest hellhole in all of Canada. I hope it proves to be less of a hellhole this than this journey has been._


	26. Family Discussion in a Tree

**Chapter 25**

**A Family Discussion in a Tree**

Three days after Garth died of a heart attack, the eleven wolves that were still alive now slept in a tree again. It was just like the last tree they slept it in, with a similar ledge on the side of it and everything. They felt safe help here. These types of trees and that gas station were the only places these serves had ever felt safe.

The hardest part getting up this tree had been getting Mica, who had only three-and-a-half legs, up it. Mica lost that leg because of an undead wolf bit her on it, when she had been mating with Stinky. Mica was only alive, and not infected with the virus, because Kate had managed to cut her leg off with a bowie knife—a large fighting knife. It she had not, the virus would have killed Mica within twenty-three hours after her initial bite.

Stinky had been ecstatic to see Mica was still alive twenty-three hours after the undead wolf bit her. It was now four days since that incident. For that reason, Stinky was even more ecstatic than ever. Of course, Garth's sudden dearth overshadowed his cheerfulness over Mica still being alive. Garth's death overshadowed any happiness the wolves had been experiencing before them.

The death of Garth had not just broken Lilly's heart but it broke her sprit. Lilly had all but lost her will to live. If it were not for her and Garth's puppies, Lilly would have contemplated and maybe even committed suicide. The puppies, that small life growing inside her womb was the only reason were still alive. If that were otherwise, Lilly probably would have drowned herself or hung herself with a vine, from a tree, days ago.

Just as Lilly was still mourning Garth, everyone else was still mourning everyone who had lost his or her lives. Claudette and Magril were still mourning Fleet, who a train ran over. He had been Claudette's mate and Magril's older brother. Princess, Runt, Terra and Danny were still mourning Sam and Melissa, whom the undead killed early on. Sam had been the youngest son of Princess and Runt, and the little brother of Terra and Danny. Melissa had been a Beta wolf, and an old friend of Princess, from her adolescent days in Banff. Well, the point was that every surviving wolf was mourning the aforementioned deceased wolves, in addition to every single wolf who didn't make it out of Jasper alive, and every other wolf who didn't make it this far. The deaths of Claws and Scar still haunted the now eleven survivors. It was a horrifying thought, that eight of them were dead when there had been nineteen Jaspers from Jasper originally. That number did not include the number of puppies the once nine pregnant she-wolves; there was six of that original number left.

Before the undead wolves killed Claws, Candy and Melissa, there had been an expected number of seventy-five puppies. Now, that number had plummeted to fifty-four unborn puppies. Therefore, with the deaths of just three potential mothers, there had been twenty-four deaths total. In short, the number of survivors dropped from ninety-four to sixty-five. That was twenty-nine deaths in about three weeks! That statistic was a massive morale killer.

Kate, Princess, Lilly, Magril, and Mica were the only hope for their extended family's future. If they died before giving birth, there would be no hope. If that happened there would be no puppies born to continue their bloodline unless the males happened to find widowed she-rogues in Banff. Obviously, those widows would have to be willing to mate with Humphrey, Runt, and Stinky, who would be the only surviving male wolves, if such a slaughter did happen. If it came to that, maybe mentioning they were such would convince them otherwise. If it came to that, they would both benefit by extending both of their destroyed families.

Of course, Humphrey, Runt, and Stinky hoped it would not come to that. It was not because of the part about mating with the she-rogues but, rather, if their pregnant mates and the pregnant widows died. Desperate times called for desperate measures. If they had to mate with rogues for the sake of their family, then so be it. If it came to mating with the she-rogues when their mates were still alive, then they would do it, as long as their mates were fine with it. That would also be a "desperate times call for desperate measures" kind of situation.

Mica's half a leg still hurt her badly on some days. Luckily, today was not one of those days. Another lucky thing was that, through some strange miracle, after Kate cut off Mica's mate with a bowie knife, Mica's leg had not bled as much as the others had expected. In fact, it was already scabbing over. That meant that the healing process had already begun. It was healing remarkably quickly. Maybe, in a few more days, flesh and fur would start growing over the bloody stump. Now, more than ever, Stinky was always with Mica. He had not spent this much time by Mica's side since she had started showing signs of pregnancy. Specifically, Stinky started when he had first noticed an increase in the size of his mate's belly. It had not been because Mica had eaten enough to get fatter, even considering her cravings. Mica was a wolf with good self-control. There was a good reason Mica was small and lightweight for a gray wolf. Gray wolves were the largest of their species.

Just as Stinky never let Mica out of his sight since she had announced her pregnancy, Runt had not let Princess out of his sight for the exact reason. The male wolves' over protectiveness of their pregnant mates with the first deaths of wolves and then outbreak of undead wolves that claimed the lives of all but originally nineteen wolves. Since then, their over protectiveness and paranoia increased with each death, whether the undead caused those deaths of not. The deaths of Garth, Claws, Fleet, and Eve showed that the undead was not the only think that could take their lives. A heart killed Garth; a train—a fucking train!—killed Fleet; and both old age and a bad heart killed Eve. Then there was Claws, who probably suffered a death worse than Garth, Fleet, and Eve. No, the undead wolves did not kill Claws, but her death was almost as bad. Because Claws's first litter had died in her womb, and had been rotting when they came out, a disease that rotted flesh destroyed Claws's body internally over a period of a few years since then. That flesh-eating disease, which no one had known about until the moments just before her death, caused Claws's death. What a terrible way to die, for Claws to feel her womb and the rest of her internal body slowly rotting. No one could imagine a more hellish way to die. It was hard to believe, but someone would suffer less than that if the undead wolves killed him or her, simply because it did not take five years for an undead wolf to kill someone!

Princess still was not supportive of Kate's idea of going to Banff and calling it a new home. She was not supportive of it, entirely.

"Kate," said Princess, "do we really have to go to Banff to find a safe home? I mean, isn't there somewhere else that is safer we could find?"

"Why?" Kate cocked her head.

"Must I explain this again? I have no good memories from living in Banff since I was only a puppy. My best memory is those two wolves driving me out of Banff. Not to mention that our puppies' grandfather is the reason their father has to wear an eye patch. No, I will not call King their grandfather again. They don't even know he and Queen exists—Runt and I have never told them who took their father's eye." Terra and Danny were sleeping soundly, so they would not here this. Still, their mother was quiet about her speaking regardless. "Not to mention, King and Queen are the reason we had thought Runt was dead."

"I know you don't want to return to Banff," Kate sighed, "and I completely understand, but we don't know of any other options. It is either we call Banff home in a few days or we all die. King and Queen have been death for years, and now, it is possible that their entire pack is dead or undead. Banff did not make your life a living hell—the wolves who lived there did. If they are all dead, what is there to worry about?"

"Having flashbacks about my hellish life is what I am worried about!" Princess snapped. "I wouldn't expect many wolves to know this, but if someone returns to a place where nothing but terrible things happened to him or her, that wolf could be constantly plagued by nightmares and flashbacks of it. Please, Kate, I do not want to spend the rest of my life plagued by nightmares and flashbacks about that place and its wolves."

Kate would have screamed at Princess if it were not for Runt sensing that. His mother was not going to interrupt him since he had begun to speak before him.

"Princess, dear," said Runt. "I promise you this: you won't have any nightmares or flashbacks about Banff. There is nothing left in Banff to remind of your life—all of the wolves from there who made us suffer are gone."

"What about the cave I thought you died in?" cried Princess.

Runt wiped the tears out of his mate's eyes. "We'll never set foot in that cave or the only King and Queen lived in." He blinked his single eye. That and his physical scars were the only reminders he had left of his imprisonment in Banff. Runt had since forgotten all of his psychological scars. Princess, however, had four years of appalling memories about Banff, from the first day she lived there.

Princess's life in Banff began when she had been only several months old, a few days older than Kate had been just after she married Humphrey. It started with a two-day battle with Alpha male of the pack at that time. King's pack had only consisted of twenty to thirty wolves then, but they defeated that pack of a hundred twenty wolves by executing the Alpha male and the Alpha female. King's wolves drove most of the defeated pack out of Banff, and then they either killed or enslaved the rest. The rogues left no wolves alive two years later. The rogues had executed every one of those enslaved wolves by then.

A year after King's then small pack took over Banff; there were now well over a hundred wolves. No, they had not mated much in one year. The majority of their new pack members had been wolves exiled from packs all over the area.

This was around the time when the rogues took Runt from his birthplace—Jasper Park, from where the original Banff rogues came from. Runt would not be with his real family now if it was not for Princess's acts of treason she committed against her own father and mother. Because she did not chose to return to Jasper with Runt and the others after a near death experience that Eve, Candy and Sweets saved her from, Princess became an enslaved Omega in Banff for the entire year after this.

It had been a year of hell for Princess. First, it began with what she had expected. King made a ruling that no one could feed her anything but scraps and whatever small animals she could catch in her cave. Those were few. A month later, the unexpected, and the unofficial, punishments began. The rogues started beating Princess on a daily basis. In the case of almost every male rogue, it turned into rape when mating season turned around, and that rape did not end after mating season ended. Princess had thought she would be safe from all unwanted mating because King and Queen had also prohibited that any sexual contact with Princess _that could get her pregnant_. They did not want a bunch of little wolves like Princess running all over Banff. Unfortunately, King and Queen had not prohibited any sexual contact with Princess's muzzle. They had just assumed all the males would know it meant no mating of any kind, oral or not, but they had only forbidden all of the males' productive with Princess's own and her butt.

The rape Princess suffered for that hellish year had been of her mouth. Entirely against her own willpower, the male rogues came to Princess, expecting her to blow them and swallow the result. _All of it._ If Princess had refused to pleasure them, the males would beat her, and then force themselves into her muzzle. They always instructed Princess to wrap her tongue around their dicks, so she would not scratch their reproductive organ with her teeth. Their only other request always had been that Princess swallow when they filled their muzzle with their semen. If she did not swallow, the male rogues would beat Princess and force her to blow them _again_. That had been the only alternative they gave her. Either she gave him a blowjob or she blew him until they neared their climax, and then they would remove their dick from her muzzle. Lastly, the male would force Princess to give him a pawjob until his semen sprayed all over her face, rather than down her throat.

There was a good reason Princess preferred swallowing opposed to letting it spray all over her face. Why? Because it was a little known fact that wolf semen had all sorts of beneficial vitamins and minerals in it. Of course, the male rogues were too stupid to know that. Princess was the only rogue who knew that. Although she had gone hungry for that year, at least she had found a way to stay alive—a disgusting way to stay alive—but anything was better than starving to death. If there had been no benefit to a year's worth of blowing those sick bastards, she would have bit the dick off every male who came to her, looking to get it sucked instead. In addition to the beatings from all the she-rogues gave her, Princess had not been imagining an end to this hell. She had not been imagining how it could get worse, either.

At the end of a year of enslavement in Banff, Princess lost it when a male rogue came to her, looking for some pleasure his mate would not give him. It he had not done it after Princess had blacked out, she probably would not have been as angry about it. That was the first time Princess did not swallow. She spit it all over that stupid fool's face in disrespect, before threatening to castrate him—to keep it a little more less vulgar—and then tore out his fucking throat! She did just that to him afterwards.

That was why King ordered Princess out of Banff, only to recapture her and Runt a month later. For only a few weeks, they both went through hell. Princess escaped Banff, because she and Runt had dug a tunnel out of the cave, thinking Runt was dead. She had mated with him only days before, and had just told him she was pregnant. She had been heat; therefore, it had been much easier for her to get pregnant.

Runt would reunited with his pregnant mate days later, his only injury being the eye King took from him on their first day in Banff. Runt survived because he killed the wolves that had attacked them. Runt had no combat training, but not even the rogues should take another wolf too lightly when he or she blacked out.

King and Queen died in the battle between Jasper and Banff days later. Princess and Runt were their killers.

This was why she did not want to return to Banff, but Princess now realized Runt was right. The wolves that had made their lives hell were probably all dead.

"Fine," Princess finally said. "I'll go to Banff with you all."


	27. Zombie!

**Chapter 26**

**"Zombie!"**

It was the morning after Kate and Princess debated calling Banff home. Because of Runt's sudden interjection into the debate, Princess was now content with calling Banff home again. After all, so many of the rogues had lost their lives that they would not have any control over the eleven survivors from Jasper. After that final battle with the rogues, in which King and Queen lost their lives, so many rogues lost their lives when they had panicked and ran off a cliff. One of two-hundred wolves who had come to Jasper, fifty of them made it out alive. A faultless example of the how ignorant the rogues were. However, there had been a hundred undead rogues attacking Jasper, so they must have done some mating before the "zombie virus" caused their untimely demise.

There was a few things the nine adult survivors—Kate, Humphrey, Princess, Runt, Claudette, Stinky, Mica and Magril—wondered about the rogues, most of whom appeared to be undead now. How many of them were undead and how many of them were still alive? No one would ever give them an answer to their biggest question. Where did the virus that turned the rogue into the undead come? Every virus had an origin. Was what the survivors had begun calling the "zombie virus" a mutation of another virus that had originated in nature? If that was the correct answer, the wolves' first viral suspect would be rabies, no questions asked. Any virus could mutate. What could stop rabies from mutating, at least in wolves, into a zombie virus?

_Nothing_, Princess thought sourly, _that is what!_

If the zombie virus was not of natural origin, then it had to have originated in and spread among the rogues in Banff. Disease was common in Banff, with all the fighting and all the sexual contact that used to go on. The blood sports—the name was a good enough explanation for what it had been—could be one of two primary suspects for the fighting part of the survivors' speculation. The rogues spilled a lot of other wolves' blood in these blood sports, hence the sinister title, and even more blood was swapped between the fighting wolves by seeping into their wounds or getting into the cuts in their mouths or down their throats. The rogues almost considered blood a beverage in Banff, just as much as water. If someone had contracted or originated with the zombie virus in their system, they could have been the one to spread it.

As for the speculation about sexual contact, if disease could spread through blood, then it could definitely spread through sexual fluids, whether it was from a male wolf or a she-wolf. The Banff rogues had been no strangers to any form of mating. The males stuck themselves where it belonged, and where it did not belong—in the mouths and tailholes of their mates. Three ways to spread the zombie virus and any other disease the rogues carried right there. As for the females, there probably had not been a male rogue they had not blown. There was a saying in Banff that "a dick was the most meat any she-wolf ate because of the famine." Melissa, most likely, had been one of those she-wolves, but she never contracted the zombie virus from all the things she had swallowed before leaving that hellhole for good.

Princess was just realizing how lucky was to never contracted the zombie virus because of all the blowjobs she had been forced to give, and swallow the aftermath, or get it all over her face.

_Enough with the damned speculation,_ Princess interrupted her thoughts again. That was so bad of a memory that she could almost taste it. That was a _bad_ thing!

Lilly's heart and spirit would never mend completely after Garth's death. None of the survivors understood how a wolf as healthy and as young as Garth could have a heart attack. It made no sense. Even if he had been an elderly wolf, like Eve, the survivors still would not understand how. Lilly still remembered that terrifying moment clearly—she would _never_ forget it until she was dead herself. She had just finished touching herself, under the excuse of using the bathroom, and had found a wig, sunglasses, bra, and panties. That tattered magazine had given Lilly an idea—to put all that clothes on, to turn Garth on. Not wearing human clothing, Lilly used to make Garth hard just by smiling at him or by mooning him. That is, not taking him to The Moonlight Howl; rather, she showed him her butt to Garth to make him horny. It was usually a joke or an insult among the Omegas to make the Alphas mad. If she could turn Garth on when she had no human clothes on, then the opposite probably would have done that so much faster. Lilly had wanted to give Garth the best blowjob of his life, by putting the entire thing in her mouth, so badly that she had an orgasm in those panties just thinking about it. Then she found Garth dead!

Lilly was now the wolf who was carrying the park ranger's backpack—the one that Reba had found after the undead wolves killed Janice. The other surviving wolves had no idea, but she had snuck the bra, the panties, the wig, and the sunglasses she had worn that night into it. She had no real idea why she had done that. Maybe, Lilly guessed, because those items reminded her of Garth since she had wanted her wearing of those items to be a surprise for him. They were not in the same part of the bag that held the puppies' food, or the part of the bag that held the knife. They had cleaned the knife thoroughly in a river after Kate cut Mica's leg off, so Mica's infected blood would not taint the food. The panties still had the leftover residue from Lilly's second orgasm—the one from after she had touched herself—on the material. It was a discoloration on the material, where her bodily fluids were. Lilly did not want her juices tainting the food. Yet, Lilly would never get rid of those clothes. Besides her memories, it was all she had left that made her think of Garth. She had lost everything else but her memories of the deceased and the wolves that were still alive.

Lilly would marry another wolf and let him mate with her when mating season came around next fall, if she was in heat—the only time a she-wolf can get pregnant—but there was no way in hell she would ever love any other wolf more than she loved Garth. She would have to marry another male wolf for her family's sake, even if that male ended up being one of the male rogues in Banff, if there was any that were still alive there. Obviously, the zombie virus would not be in those surviving rogues' systems, or they would have turned a long time ago. There would be no risk of the zombie virus infecting any of them who would have to find new mates in Banff. Lilly had gave so many blowjobs and swallowed so much semen even before marrying Garth that getting any "common" disease wasn't a concern for her. Except for that damn zombie virus, Lilly was, in all likelihood, immune to such diseases that spread through contact with bodily fluids among wolves. Moreover, even among the rogues, there was not that much disease among wolves compared to other animals. Lilly had an immune system that was stronger than most wolves.

If it came to it, Lilly would wear the clothes she had snuck out of the gas station, if she needed some physical way Garth could remind her of himself. Obviously, she did not have his body to touch, since they had buried Garth in the soil outside the gas station. She was sure that the others would understand if she elucidated—explained—the items' significance to her. Although she was more sexually active then any of the survivors, male, or female, she was also the shyest of them all. There was a stereotype about shy wolves like Lilly that they were the most sexually active of wolves. If was definitely true about Lilly, as hard as that fact was to believe or accept. Someone had once called her a "slut" because she one had squealed on her for giving a blowjob to a different male every few days. It was true, but it did not end well for that wolf who said it. Eve had heard him say it, and there had been hell to pay. She put that wolf, a male, in the rangers' station for the rest of his life—that had not been for long. He died a week later, because of how badly Eve had roughed him up. No one insulted Lilly for her sexual activity, or even talked about it again, not even when they knew Eve was sleeping.

"How far are we from Banff?" Magril asked Princess.

"We'll be there by nightfall tomorrow," Princess said, "if we don't run into anything else that causes a delay." No one wanted to use the words "undead" or "zombie" after what happened to Mica recently.

"Good to know," Mica spat bitterly. "My three-and-a-half legs—and I'm tired of this entire journey!"

"Look on the bright side," Stinky said. "Your legs will get stronger than they would be if you still had four legs."

"I'll never be able to go on caribou hunts again!" she whined. Mica looked at her devoted mate with sad puppy eyes, which leaked large tears.

Stinky nuzzled her head gently with his own muzzle. "We'll take care of you." He licked her cheek and smiled at her. "We can all hunt for you."

"What a boring life that'll be!" Mica sighed. "What am I supposed to do?"

"You'll be able to come to the closest thing to a Howling Rock in Banff and how with me."

"Stinky, dear, as much as I love howling with you, I want to be able to dance with you! I can't do that with half a leg missing!"

"RUN!" Princess roared suddenly. "ZOMBIE!" Everyone darted except for one wolf. She did not have a chance to react.

Kate turned around, out of foolish instinct—she had not believed the warning, for some reason—and saw the jaws of an undead wolf, wide open, coming at her. A commotion began when everything got bloody. Everything went black for Kate.


	28. How could this happen?

**Chapter 27**

**"How could this happen?"**

Humphrey was howling with heartache—he had not howled in such a way since he had thought the caribou killed Kate during the stampede. Everyone else had gathered around Kate after Princess killed the undead wolf with a rock.

Everyone broke out in tears when they saw that Kate was bleeding from a bite on her neck, just above her shoulder.

"No!" Claudette screeched with terror and sorrow. "How could this happen?!" The undead wolf had bit Kate. "Why? Oh, why! Not mother!" she bawled.

"I-is there anything we can do?" Mica asked, as she sobbed. She was sniffing—tears flowed from her eyes and mucus from her nose. "L-like how she cut off my leg with that knife?"

"Not without...without killing her," Runt cried. "T-there are no ways we can...save her..."

Kate finally spoke. She had a stronger voice than anyone else who had spoken before her, but there was still weakness in her voice. Why would there not be there be? That bite on her death was a death sentence! It had not yet hit Kate that the last day of her life had just begun. She would know how it felt when her body to shut down before she breathed her last breath.

Really, Kate only had eleven hours, of the twenty-three hours of living left. She remembered that timetable of symptoms that occurred after an undead wolf bit someone. At hour eleven of her infection, the virus would paralyze her lower body; overall, her body would become numb, and her heart rate would slow dramatically. She would be all but dead in eleven hours. If they had not left Kate behind after eight hours, they would have no chance but to leave her behind after eleven hours. They would not be able to carry her. The symptoms Kate would be experiencing in eight hours would be numbing of her extremities and of the bite mark on her neck. Kate would have a fever of 103 to 106 degrees Fahrenheit. She would also be experiencing extreme dementia, to the point of forgetting everything. Lastly, she would lose all of her muscular coordination.

Right now, Kate was already experiencing the earliest symptoms of infection with the zombie virus. The symptoms affected the bite on her neck and nothing else. It was painful because, well, another wolf had bit her on the neck; the force behind a wolf's bite was powerful enough to break bones. It was also painful because of the virus that was already flowing through her veins. The infected area was already experiencing discoloration—the area was a brown-purple color. It looked like rotting flesh, even though the area was not decomposing...yet. It had almost immediately stopped bleeding; it was already clotting up.

Runt, Claudette and Stinky buried their faces in the fur of their mother's breast. They were shedding large tears; the drops flowed down the curvature of Kate's breast.

Kate looked down at her children.

"Don't worry," their mother whispered. "Everything will be alright...everything will be alright..."

Deep in her heart, Kate knew nothing would be all right. She had said that to console her children.

Kate would be undead in less than twenty-three hours...and she knew it.


	29. Two Wolves Die Together

**Chapter 28**

**Two Wolves Die Together**

It was seven hours since an undead wolf bite Kate on the neck.

Kate felt so cold. The normal body temperature of a wolf was 86.5 degrees Fahrenheit. She now had a fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit. It had begun as 99 degrees Fahrenheit and climbed slowly in the past two hours. Although Kate's body temperature was 36.5 degrees Fahrenheit over a wolf's natural body temperature, she was experiencing chills. That Kate would have though her body temperature was 50 degrees Fahrenheit, 36.5 degrees Fahrenheit _less than_, not greater than, what a wolf's natural body temperature.

That was not all of the symptoms Kate had begun experiencing five hours after the undead wolf bit her. The third of five symptoms was the slight dementia. Dementia was a condition that usually afflicted the brains of older wolves naturally by causing memory less. Kate could not remember anything after a period of three hours. She could not remember the undead wolf biting her, anything four hours before then or three hours after then.

Kate could not forget a few things. The first was the names of her fellow survivors. In addition, she remembered who her fellow survivors were. She remembered why Mica was missing half a leg, and why there was only ten other wolves with her. Kate could not forget the names of the deceased, nor what killed them. There were some things someone could not forget easily, even when a mild case of dementia was afflicting him or her. Kate was just remembering why she was these symptoms and the blowjob she gave Humphrey before the undead destroyed almost all life in Jasper. She had forgotten those two events briefly.

Although this was the least common symptom, Kate would vomit occasionally, even when her stomach had nothing in it. She could not control the sensitivity of her stomach. Even eating berries that normally calmed an upset stomach had a negative effect on Kate. She could not keep anything down for long. Water was the only thing did not make Kate's stomach sick.

The only thing that could possibly be more sensitive than Kate's stomach was her joints. She was experiencing acute pain in her joints. This was bad because Kate had promised the other survivors that she would travel as far as she could with them before her lower body went into paralysis. That would be eleven hours after her initial infection, which was about four hours from now. Kate had made that promise before she had begun showing any severe symptoms; she had completely forgotten about what the symptoms were. That was how badly Kate had been shocked when she realized an undead wolf had bitten her. The pain of her joints was acute, but it was still so bad that Kate wanted to take her promise back, and just curl up and die right now! Still, she would try to make it the next four hours, but Kate was beginning to doubt her chances. All because of the pain, and the numbness, her joints were experiencing.

Kate was thinking about what little she and the others knew about this zombie virus, based on her nightmare that she now considered a premonition. A lot of this real life outbreak had been a lot like in her dream, with difference of events. Many of the wolves who were dead now had died similar ways in her dream, except for Garth, Fleet, and Eve.

The zombie virus was 100 percent communicable, or contagious, albeit only through direct fluidic contact with an infected being. It could only spread through contact with bodily fluids: their blood, their saliva, their semen, and so on, even if those fluids of an undead wolf were not as fluidic as the same bodily fluids in a living wolf. Kate knew from events she had witnessed herself that a bite from an undead wolf was not the only way the virus could infect someone. That was the only way the undead wolves infected recent victims. At least that they had witnessed. Kate had no idea how many wolves the undead had infected between the wounds of the living and the undead, the splattering of undead blood, or even the consumption of undead wolves' flesh. Alternatively, God forbid, someone mated with an undead wolf, not knowing what it really was. Someone had to be the biggest fool in Canada to attempt those last two ways of infection.

The zombie virus was all 100 percent fatal. Once infected, a victim only had twenty-three hours of life left before he or she died, then reanimated. Kate also remembered that there was no way to cure the zombie virus, at least not among wolves or any other animals. Not with what little wolves knew about medicine and healing arts. Maybe the humans had a cure—but Kate and the others did not know how wrong their optimistic speculation was. Kate knew she was going to die before her twenty-three hours were up; she would never see any humans she speculated could cure her.

Kate knew that she would die in about four hours, after her lower body went into paralysis. She also knew the undead were not too far away, and that they would kill her when the other survivors had no other choice but to leave her almost unresponsive body behind. Kate would begin her process of dying at that point. There would be no point in carrying a half-paralyzed and dying wolf, she thought, because it would not be easy. Moreover, the virus would kill her. In addition that that, it was because she now posed a constant threat to them. That was simply because any of her bodily fluids—even her tears or saliva—could infect them with the zombie virus. Sweat was not as much of a concern, because wolves could only sweat on the bottom of their paws.

Runt, Claudette and Stinky were not the only wolves who were crying now. Humphrey, Lilly, Princess, Lilly, Mica, and Magril—basically, all of the survivors—were sniveling also. It had just hit them all that Kate was dying. They had all known that from the moment that saw that undead wolf's teeth sink into Kate's neck, but the reality was only just sinking in. It was the worst reality that could sink in, for so many young wolves to learn their mother, mother-in-law, or grandmother was dying. For Humphrey and Lilly, it hit just as hard for them to learn his mate and her older sister was dying. It also hurt them all to know that Kate was pregnant with five puppies, now that she was slowly dying. When Kate would pass away, six wolves, not just one, would lose their lives.

"What will happen to our grandmommy?" Terra, the oldest puppy of Princess and Runt, asked.

She and Danny were quavering.

The wolves stopped walking unexpectedly. As the others kept watch for the undead wolves, Princess looked down at her son and daughter.

"She'll end up like the wolves who killed Claws, Scar, Candy, Melissa, and Sam," their mother said. "I didn't want to lie to you or I would have told you she'd be alright."

* * *

One hour later, Kate began showing even more symptoms. It was now eight hours since that undead wolf first bit her. These new symptoms were so much worse than the previous round of symptoms.

The acute pain of Kate's joints was one of the symptoms that were getting worse. Kate's extremities and the infected area were numbing. They were so numb it was painful. Yet Kate was going on just to keep the promise she had made for her family.

Kate's fever had increased from 103 degrees Fahrenheit to 106 degrees Fahrenheit immediately, and it had increased to 110 degrees Fahrenheit since. Kate was sweating, even though she was experiencing even worse chills than before. Kate's body temperature was increasing three-and-a-half degrees Fahrenheit every thirty minutes. Her body temperature would be 117 degrees Fahrenheit in an hour and 131 degrees Fahrenheit by hour eleven of infection, which was when Kate expected to pass away. However, if Kate had been expecting to live until hour twenty-three rather than hour eleven, her body temperature would be 215 degrees Fahrenheit, given the current rate of increase. If she did not die before them, that is. That was just an assumption, not a fact.

Kate's dementia had increased to a level so badly that she could no longer remember any of the things she had remembered an hour ago. Kate could not remember anything she had learned about undead physiology—their bodily processes. She could not remember the undead attack in Jasper a couple months ago, the blowjob she gave Humphrey not long before that attack, any of the undead wolves' victims, the bite on her neck, and why she was in so much pain. Kate could not even remember how the wolves had said they loved her only an hour ago. She did not know she had told the other ten wolves she would die in what was now three hours—it had been four hours at the time.

She had also lost all of her muscular coordination. She was now walking—rather, shambling, or dragging her feet—just like the undead wolves. It was a terrifying sight to her fellow survivors. Kate was slowly acting more and more like the undead. Would she start making an effort to consume them as the undead would? Would any of them have the backbone to kill Kate as they had Melissa, after an undead wolf tore her throat out?

* * *

The next three hours were pure hell on Earth for Kate as her body temperature continued increasing seven degrees every hour. It was now dark out; the moon was in the sky. It was a full moon. Just as Kate's temperature hit 131 degrees Fahrenheit, her lower body went into total paralysis. That is, she could no longer walk and was lying up against a boulder. This was all very reminiscent of Claws before they had left her and Scar behind to die.

Overall, Kate's body was suffering from numbness; all of her nerves were as dead as the wolves who did this to her. Kate was suffering from just as extreme pain. Whether she moved, or not, it was a severe, hellish pain. Kate would _always_ scream. Her memories were coming back to her just because of her suffering. Right now, she was remembering when that undead wolf bit her neck open, as well as one good memory. It was just one. That particular memory was the last blowjob she ever gave Humphrey. She only remembered the moment he ejaculated—reached his climax after she had sucked him off for over fifteen minutes—in her mouth. She remembered swallowing that thick, salty fluid. She could not remember anything she had done to get Humphrey to that point.

The final new symptom was a slowed heart rate. Kate's heart rate was so slow that she was not sure when it would be beat. She thought each heartbeat would be its last, until the next one occurred. That time between each of the individual heartbeats increased after each one. Ten minutes later, her heart beat once, and then it never beat again. It ended and never picked up again. Kate's vision went blurry as she slipped into a coma, five hours before she had expected to, according to her timetable of symptoms. Kate managed to let them know about that timetable before her voice gave out.

At that moment, the stench of rotting flesh struck the noses of the other wolves—except for Kate. She could not smell, see, or hear anything, in her coma. She was possible minutes from death, because of her heart stopping. She could not stay alive for much longer. The sound of moaning and shambling paws struck their eardrums at the same moment that smell reached their noses. A small horde of undead wolves was shambling toward the group of living wolves. The horde was only a few meters way. There was enough time for them to get away—and for Humphrey to make his decision.

What happened next was so similar to what happened when Claws had been dying, her against a similar boulder. Scar had wanted to stay with Claws, so she would not alone. The undead tore both him and Claws apart after she died.

"I am not leaving Kate to die alone," Humphrey said.

"She's basically dead already!" Princess barked. "Kate may die just like Claws, but you won't die like Scar! I'll drag you away from here by your tail, if you even try to!"

"I didn't show any of you this until now," Humphrey said suddenly. "I didn't even show Kate."

"Excuse me?" Claudette gasped.

The wolves all gasped in unanimity when Humphrey turned around and moved his tail slightly, revealing a bite on his hind leg. It was his right leg. It was almost fresh, maybe two hours old at the most.

Humphrey turned back around.

Everyone was in tears again.

"W-when did it happen?" Lilly choked out these words in disbelief.

"Two hours ago," Humphrey whispered, "when I'd wanted to be alone to cry over Kate. I didn't return until the bleeding had stopped and the smell of blood had gone away."

"Dad-" Stinky began. He, like every, was in tears.

"No, son," he argued. "I won't let you all watch me go through what Kate did. I will not have to go through it if you leave now. I can see Banff from here. You'll be there in about an hour."

"What about you?" Mica cried.

"Kate and I will let the zombies determine that," Humphrey said.

"This is...is goodbye?" Princess gasped.

"This is goodbye." Humphrey nodded. He was crying, not for himself, but for Kate. "I want you to all leave _now_. Look how close the zombies are."

"But dad-" Claudette began.

"Go!" Humphrey screamed. "I don't want anyone else to die! They will not follow you if you get up on that cliff, run along it, and then get off it a few meters away from here. They won't be able to track you!"

"I love you, dad," Runt, Claudette, Stinky, Mica and Magril all said in unison, as they cried.

Terra and Danny said, "I love you, granddaddy."

Princess came out of her stupor.

The last thing she would ever say to him would be "I love you, dad." This was the first time Princess ever called Humphrey dad, as much as she loved him like a father. This would be the only time she called him dad, too.

The nine wolves said their last goodbyes to Kate and Humphrey. They left just as Humphrey had instructed them to.

Five minutes went by before the undead wolves arrived. Kate was dead, her eyes shut because Humphrey had closed them after she died.

Humphrey now recalled his short conversation with Kate. This was the second time he remembered it, as the undead enclosed on them:

_"Kate, if something happens to me," Humphrey had said to her then, "what will you do?"_

_ "I will die with you," she had said. "I wouldn't be able to go on living if you were gone, dear."_

_ "I would do the same for you," said Humphrey, "if something happened to you that wouldn't allow you to go on anymore. I couldn't imagine life without you."_

That was Humphrey's last thought as undead wolf jaws closed in on him and a deceased Kate. Everything went dark for him, as he saw down their gullets.

* * *

**Author's note:** Yes, that discussion between Kate and Humphrey about how if one of them died, the other would was foreshadowing of future events. There was a good reason I included that brief flashback so many chapters ago.


	30. Banff

**Chapter 29**

**Banff**

Although the now just nine survivors were a few yards away from where they had left Kate and Humphrey, they heard a sudden scream. Although it was brief, they knew it was Humphrey— and just he.

"I hope dad didn't suffer for too long," Claudette whimpered.

"I'll never forget his scream," cried Mica.

"Are we still planning to go to Banff?" Magril asked.

Everyone looked at Princess because she was the oldest Alpha or Beta who was still alive. That automatically put her in charge, since Kate and Humphrey were dead, and she was the oldest surviving Beta wolf. None of the surviving Alphas were older than Princess. Only in a time like this, it did not matter that Stinky would be the next park leader because he was Kate and Humphrey's oldest son. Bloodline did not mean a damn thing now. Age and experience was all that mattered. Lilly was the oldest wolf, but Princess had more experience than she did. Omegas did not have as much experience as Alphas and Betas did, because Omegas did not receive any training like their higher-ranking friends and family. Rank did not matter now, either.

"Yes," Princess sighed, "we will go to Banff, destroy any zombies we see there and call it our new home."

* * *

An hour later, the only survivors—Princess, Runt, Claudette, Stinky, Mica, Magril, and the two puppies Terra and Danny—crossed the border into Banff.

Immediately after crossing that border into Banff, the nine survivors did not know if what greeted them was better or worse than the undead wolves. It was nine living rogues—five male rogues and four she-rogues. The former Jasper wolves noticed some puppies between each of the older wolves. There were sixteen puppies, two between each of the adults. There were no puppies outside of this line of adult wolves.

Princess and Runt did not recognize any of these wolves—that was a relief—but they knew these wolves were rogues.

The rogues knew these nine visitors were from Jasper.

"There is no need to be nervous," the oldest she-wolf said. She was young, but none of these young wolves appeared to be older than this she-wolf. She seemed to be pregnant—her belly was larger than a usual she-wolf's was. Not by much, though. "The zombies caused enough death. We will not cause any more death, not even for wolves from Jasper like you nine. We have lost enough of our friends and family. You are all welcome to stay here as long as you want. We exterminated any zombie threat long before you wolves showed up. In addition, this is where all the caribou from Jasper came—the caribou have the scent of Jasper wolves on them. We were just puppies the last time were in Jasper, but we know enough about the park before King took us from it."

"How does your pack—are you the Alpha female?" Princess began.

"Yes, I am. My name is Terry," the she-rogue said.

Princess began again. "How does your pack keep safe?" she asked. "The zombies are everywhere out there. They just killed our Alpha male and Alpha female not far from here!"

"This cliff is not where our pack lives," Terry explained. "We know about the nearby zombies. We live in a valley at the center of Banff. Furthermore, the zombies have never found us, not that it matters any. Because of the terrain, we'll never be at risk of the zombies overrunning out valley."

"How so?" Mica asked.

The adult rogues and their puppies started with shock at Mica's half leg.

"I'll answer your question in a second," Terry said, "but what happened to your leg?"

"A zombie bit me on the leg, and our now late Alpha female cut the leg off with a knife to save my life," the three-legged wolf explained.

"Are you the Alpha female of Banff now?" Magril asked.

"Yes," Terry said. "I took over after the outbreak began. I helped the few survivors to this valley. The zombies took my entire family from me, except for my mate, who is standing to my right, and our puppies."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Claudette said.

"Don't apologize," said Terry, "you've probably lost more wolves than we did. I know how many wolves you probably lost. Remember, I have been to Jasper. I also spied once, when I was an adolescent, and you had multiple times more wolves than our pack did, even before the outbreak."

"Can we talk more in your valley?" Runt asked. "I don't feel safe here, after losing my parents."

"Of course," she said. "I understand. I'm so sorry about your Alpha male and Alpha female."

* * *

The Jasper wolves were in awe of how many wolves lived in this valley at the center of Banff. They could not all be rogues. Many of them died years ago after that last battle with Banff and the undead had killed even more of them.

"How many of your pack are rogues?" Stinky tried to sound as kind as possible by asking this question. "I hope I didn't offend you by asking that."

"No offense taken. We are the only rogues who are still alive. Everyone else is wolves who fled their homes after the zombies overran them. I believe some of them are survivors from the Northern and the Southern packs of Jasper."

"There are survivors from Jasper!" gasped Lilly. "Are there any Eastern or Western wolves?" she added excitedly.

"No," Terry said in a serious voice. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you may be all that is left of the Eastern and Western packs. But, now that you have seen it, do you understand why we are safe from the zombies in this valley?"

A wide and deep ditch looked like a border of this valley. There was a stone ledge—it looked like a ramp—that went down into the valley. The wolves had to jump over a two-foot gap to get on the ramp. That ramp fell into a twenty-foot deep ditch. It was entirely impossible for the zombies to get in the part of the valley where the surviving wolves lived. The zombies would just go right off the edge and splatter themselves all over the ditch below. Moreover, the valley appeared to be entirely self-sustaining. A fresh water river flowed through the valley and a herd of caribou was grazing at the northern side of the valley. The group of wolves and the puppies could see all that from on this cliff.

Terry, her mate and all over the other wolves turned to the nine surviving Eastern and Western Jasper wolves after they jumped over the ditch.

"Welcome to Banff," Terra addressed them all, "your new home and probably the safest place in Canada for wolves..."

**The End**


End file.
